Chattanooga Times Free Press

Order to remove homeless from streets facing challenges

-

NEW YORK — As bitter winter weather arrived in the Northeast, New York’s governor issued an executive order requiring the homeless to be forcibly removed from the streets in freezing temperatur­es, an unpreceden­ted government interjecti­on that faced immediate legal questions and backlash.

The order, believed to be the only one of its kind in any city or state, would require communitie­s to reach out to their street homeless population­s and take those people to shelters, voluntaril­y or not, once the temperatur­e drops to 32 degrees Fahrenheit or below.

“We have to get people in off the streets,” Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

But the order faced resistance, including from New York City officials, who threatened not to comply. The prospect of forcible removals from the streets also raised deep worries among advocates for the homeless.

“Put simply, being homeless is not a crime,” said Mary Brosnahan, president of the Coalition for the Homeless in New York, who warned that aggressive measures would push “the most marginaliz­ed homeless men and women further away from the very networks needed to engage them.”

That sentiment was echoed by some homeless men interviewe­d by The Associated Press on Monday.

Eddie Rouse said he feels safer and more comfortabl­e riding subway trains for warmth on frigid New York City nights than he would in a shelter.

“I’ve been in a shelter, and I’m telling you, a lot of those people need to be in mental institutio­ns,” said Rouse, who’s 64. “You’ve got drug addicts. You have to wake up at a certain time and leave at a certain time. So they’ll put you back in the cold. You can’t stay in the shelter. It’s not a safe haven.”

Under current state law, a police officer or outreach worker can take people from the street only if they appear to be in imminent danger or display signs of mental illness.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States