TRASHED BY HER UNION
From subway to shelter – & back?
Mayor de Blasio claimed on Monday that officials were making “historic” gains in getting homeless people off the subways amid the coronavirus crisis — even though it was unclear how many were simply hopping right back on the rails.
De Blasio said the unprecedented nightly shutdowns of the subway system for cleaning had led to record numbers of homeless riders bedding down in city shelters instead.
“I keep telling you something historic is happening and day after day. The facts bear it out,” the mayor said during his daily coronavirus briefing at City Hall.
De Blasio said 261 homeless people were “engaged” by cops and outreach workers during Monday’s 1 a.m.-to5 a.m. shutdown, with 116 people agreeing to relocate to city shelters.
Another 23 were taken to hospitals, he said.
Those figures brought the total number of homeless subway riders who have accepted assistance since Wednesday to nearly 1,050.
But Human Resources Administration Commissioner Steven Banks wouldn’t say what portion comprised riders who were repeatedly heading to shelters after being kicked off the trains.
“We’re looking at the trends,” Banks said. “We certainly see some people that are staying in [shelters] and some people that are not staying in.”
Jacquelyn Simone, a policy analyst for the nonprofit Coalition for the Homeless, questioned the city’s numbers, saying that “some really powerful monitoring at the 30th Street Men’s Shelter” in Manhattan revealed some subway riders didn’t realize they would be brought there.
“So some people did not even walk in the door of those facilities once they realized how many people were there and what the risk of contracting COVID might be,” she said.
Josh Dean of Human.nyc, another advocacy group, also said many homeless people were “moving further into the shadows to avoid the cruelty they are experiencing” by getting kicked off the subways.
“The mayor loves to talk about trust between outreach and homeless New Yorkers, but his actions right now are destroying that trust, perhaps irreparably,” he said.