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Homeless Families Are Not Lab Rats
  1. Signatures
    2,811 out of 5,000
    Petitioning
    1. Department of Homeless Services Commissioner (+ 1 other)
      Petitioning
      close
      • Department of Homeless Services Commissioner (Seth Diamond)
      • Center for Urban Research Director (John Mollenkopf)
  2. Created By
    Indy
    Seattle, WA
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

New York families at risk of homelessness are being subjected to a cruel experiment. 

The director of the City University of New York's Center for Urban Research, John Mollenkopf, is conducting a study — endorsed by the city's Department of Homeless Services — that randomly assigns 200 families to a program that includes housing assistance, job training and more. 

The lab rats are the 200 other needy families who are barred from services in order to be the control group. Researchers will track them for the purposes of seeing who ends up in shelters and who can find help on their own. 

Tell the researchers and the commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services that these families aren't lab rats and urge them to end the experiment today!

Photo credit: jepoirrier

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Homeless people are not lab rats

Greetings

Human beings are not lab rats. What data collection are you after that justifies unnecessary hardship to 200 families by sending them into the streets to fend for themselves? You already know that resources are scarce. What further evidence is necessary to prove that direct intervention prevents homelessness?

You are right, Mr. Mollenkopf. If one family dies on the street, the much larger population has learned something extremely valuable: that New York's Department of Homeless Services places no value on the lives of the less fortunate.

Mr. Diamond, you don’t need to use people in experiments to know there are flaws in the way social services are handled. The only way to keep families and individuals out of shelters is to prevent them from being evicted in the first place.

I respectfully ask you to halt this unjust, unnecessary experiment in cruelty.

[Your name]

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