Report: Rise in Gang Crimes, Homelessness
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Gang-motivated incidents are up, more people are entering the city’s homeless shelters and fire inspections have slowed, according to an annual city report card released today.
The compilation, called the Mayor’s Management Report, lists data from every city agency for the 2007 fiscal year that ended June 30.
The report provides a picture of many quality of life issues like safety and street cleanliness, as well as how well the government is performing in areas like sanitation and firefighting.
Mr. Bloomberg said in a statement that the report, mandated by City Charter since 1977, “encourages agencies to focus on the areas needing improvement and to build on ongoing success.”
Crime is at historic lows throughout the city, but gang-motivated incidents increased 29% when compared with the previous year, from 554 incidents to 713.
Police said that category is defined as “gang-on-gang” crimes. Gang-related arrests also increased last year, by 4%; police said the department has ramped up its focus on gang activities.
The report also showed how the Bloomberg administration continues to struggle with homelessness in New York City.
More families and single adults are entering the city shelter system: during the reporting period, the number of families increased to 10,165 from 9,184 and the single adult count was up to 21,897 from 21,611.
More single adults are being placed into permanent housing, the city says, but the number of families on that path has decreased.
Fire response times were faster by an average of 3 seconds citywide, although they were one second slower in the Bronx when compared with the previous year.
The number of fire inspections was down to 180,508 from 186,551 in the previous year, a slip that has already come under scrutiny in recent weeks since the investigation into a fatal fire at a condemned ground zero building found that it was not being properly inspected.
Since that fire, the Fire Department has said it is overhauling its inspection and reporting procedures citywide.
Another trend that the administration has not been able to reverse is the city’s number of syphilis cases. The rate has been growing over the past several years, except for a slight decrease last year, but in the current report the number jumped by 37%, from 587 cases to 805.
The Health Department said the increase appears to be concentrated mostly among men who have sex with men, according to the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The increase in syphilis cases came in the same year that the city distributed more than 17 million free condoms in an effort to step up its condom giveaway efforts to help reduce sexually-transmitted diseases. Fewer than 4 million condoms were handed out during the previous reporting period.