Shocking Street Attack Puts N.Y. Senate Race in Focus

The homeless issue, all but forgotten in the city’s booming revival, has come roaring back in the days since a man smashed a woman’s head with a brick on a busy midtown street. It has also become the first hot-button issue in the expected U.S. Senate race between Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Indeed, after months of petty squabbling over tactics and public relations blunders, the horrifying attack on Nicole Barrett, thought to have been committed by a homeless man, has turned the sniping contest into a real campaign--and so far it seems to be highlighting some of Clinton’s vulnerabilities.

The skirmishing between Giuliani and Clinton, who have blasted each other over the issue of homelessness but have not formally announced their candidacies for the November election, erupted soon after the Nov. 16 attack on Barrett, 26, a Texas native who worked for an office temporary agency. The crime sparked a frenzy of media coverage and a citywide outpouring of grief for the woman, who suffered brain injuries. The Daily News, for one, ran a Page One editorial: “Get The Violent Crazies Off Our Streets.” And the next day, Giuliani announced that he was ordering the police to arrest street people who refused offers to go to shelters or other facilities.

Earlier, he had directed that all able-bodied homeless people who refuse workfare assignments be evicted from city-run shelters, along with their children, who would then be placed in foster care facilities, if necessary. The Republican mayor, citing concerns with public safety, said that people with alcohol, drug-related or mental problems should not be on the streets to begin with and described his controversial policies regarding the homeless as “a much more humane, more decent and more caring philosophy than just ignoring the problem.”

In a blistering attack last week, Clinton denounced these programs as “punishing the poor,” calling instead for new housing programs and less punitive measures to deal with the city’s estimated 40,000 homeless people. She blasted the apparent contradictions of policies that force people out of New York shelters, then arrest them for being on the street.

“Breaking up families that are homeless is wrong,” Clinton said. “Criminalizing the homeless with mass arrests . . . is wrong. Locking people up for a day . . . will not make a mentally ill person who should be in an institution any better.”

Over the weekend, more than 1,000 demonstrators filled Union Square, protesting Giuliani’s policies on the 20th anniversary of a landmark state court ruling that established a legal right to shelter. Echoing these concerns, a coalition of religious leaders has written a letter to the mayor urging him to suspend his controversial policies on the homeless.

As the debate intensifies, both candidates can find evidence of public support. In the Big Apple, the mayor’s decision to arrest homeless people is opposed by 77% of residents, according to a survey by cable TV station NY1. Seeking to shore up her base in the heavily Democratic city, Clinton has invoked the baby Jesus, describing him as a homeless person who would have been ill-treated by Giuliani’s directives.

Some of the party faithful are pleased she was so forthright after months of focusing on a “listening tour” of the state. “People can see the mayor’s actions for what they are--the actions of a very cruel and authoritarian man,” said former Mayor Edward I. Koch, a foe of Giuliani’s. “I think she’s been speaking out very responsibly to people in New York City.”

But it’s a different story in the vote-rich suburbs, where the mayor has opened up a lead of 21 percentage points over Clinton, according to a Marist Poll released last week. Bill Clinton carried these areas handily in two presidential elections, campaigning as a “tough” New Democrat in favor of welfare reform and more cops on the street.

Now, on the issue of the homeless, Giuliani seems more of a centrist than the first lady, according to Democratic and Republican political consultants. And that could spell trouble for Clinton, who has fallen steadily behind the mayor after seizing a lead in public opinion surveys earlier this year. In the latest Marist poll, Giuliani leads, 49% to 40%, with 11% undecided.

“Bill Clinton understood that you couldn’t win statewide voters with old liberal ideas,” says Joseph Mercurio, a GOP consultant, acknowledging the president’s skill in claiming the political center. “But on this issue, she’s been running to the left of her husband. So the mayor looks like a moderate.”

The issue underscores one of the first lady’s chief dilemmas: She spoke out to shore up support with liberals and minorities, voters who were largely hers to begin with, but whose support and turnout are crucial to her chances. At the same time, her comments have apparently not resonated with “soccer moms” and other suburban voters, whose support she also needs to overcome Giuliani’s lead.

Meanwhile, the mayor has softened the draconian quality of his position, stressing that most mentally ill homeless people are not violent and need help. Even though many people in the city disagree with him on this issue, it has not eroded his overall support, built largely on the plunging crime rate during his term of office.

Giuliani “has moved closer to the center, saying we have to do something to get people off the streets, and I think he wins this argument,” said Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf. “People in the suburbs who are glad that crime is down in New York will say, ‘Well, maybe he was too rough, but it’s a big social problem and he dealt with it.’ ”

Giuliani hailed the arrest last week of Paris Drake, a vagrant with an extensive rap sheet but no history of mental illness, in the attack on Barrett; Drake is being held on a charge of attempted murder. New Yorkers were also heartened to learn that Barrett has made significant progress in recovering from her injuries.

The mayor announced Sunday that in recent days police have arrested 160 homeless people who refused to go to shelters, more than in the previous 11 months. Under the plan, which the mayor has described as a more aggressive enforcement of an existing policy, officers arrest only uncooperative street people as a last resort.

Clinton, calling for expanded federal housing subsidies for the homeless, has put herself squarely in the tradition of liberal policy on the issue. But times are changing. A 1993 report on the city’s homeless population, compiled by Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo, identified many reasons why people are homeless--and a lack of housing was just one of them.

“The report found that people are also homeless because of alcoholism, mental illness and drug abuse,” said Democratic consultant Jeff Plaut. “So the person who claims the political center on this issue has to be talking about rights and responsibilities. It’s a Clintonesque balancing of the two.”

With Giuliani and Clinton jockeying for position, others suggest the issue is more rhetoric than reality. The city was scheduled to start evicting people from shelters this week but then announced a delay.

And it is unclear if police are continuing to round up the homeless, beyond an initial wave of arrests, said Steven Banks of the New York Legal Aid Society.

“We don’t know if the overall numbers are growing, because it’s hard to know from night to night” he said. “All we know is that there’s a lot of bravado on the homeless issue.”