Helping Families Before Foster Care

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made significant progress in his four year goal of providing assistance for the homeless of New York City. A recent New York Times article reports that the city’s new agreement provides “immediate [and] free shelter” to “homeless families demonstrating urgent need.” This means that access to desperately needed supplies such as infant formula will no longer be as heavily regulated and made unnecessarily complicated by forms and regulations. With improvements needed in our nation’s foster care system, it is comforting to see Mr. Bloomberg making efforts to address families facing even more dire circumstances. Families might have a better chance to get back on their feet, especially amidst a flagging economy, if more services were made available in other cities, resulting in fewer children being put in jeopardy.