On January 16, I wrote to Governor Cuomo to request that he allocate $4.75 million for Runaway and Homeless Youth in the Executive Budget to create new beds to address the 5,041 annual instances when children are turned away from shelters because of overcrowding. In the past 90 days alone, shelter providers across New York State have been forced to refuse entry to nearly 400 children because of the lack of beds. Help for our state’s homeless youth represents a moral imperative to protect innocent children from the evils and exploitation of life on the street.