Even as the city announced a significant decline in the number of homeless New Yorkers living on the street this year, the total living in the subways jumped by 13 percent, NYC’s Department of Homeless Services announced today. According to their annual HOPE survey results, the number of homeless who take up residence in the subway has hit 1841 this year, up 207 over 2012 and more than double the total found in 2005.
As part of the report, the MTA and City announced a new approach toward combating homelessness in the subways. DHS will now be in charge of outreach on all trains, stations and terminals while the MTA will focus on commuter rail properties, including Penn Station and Grand Central. The two agencies hope this approach will lead to better data sharing and more comprehensive outreach.
“The MTA and the Department of Homeless Services’ effective partnership will deliver enhanced outreach services to individuals in every area of the subways,” said Cynthia Wilson, manager of MTA Homeless Outreach Services. “By vastly increasing resources for homeless persons in the subways, we will bring greater services and develop more relationships to advance our goal of placing homeless individuals into housing and improving their lives.”
11 comments
Call me a bleeding heart, but shouldn’t society deal with homelessness by reducing homelessness?
Democrat/Republikan middle ground: a Star Wars-style array of space guns can be used to shoot them from orbit? Homelessness reduced, and our
giant defense contractorsmen in uniform get supported too! Bipartisanship in action!…or, I suppose, you could just send the E train to terminate at Smith-9th overnights. Nice, refurbished station, but it still wouldn’t be fun to have to be forced onto the platform there for fumigation during the winter.
(Seriously, it would be nice to figure out a way to separate the poverty aspects of homelessness from the mental illness aspects and treat both types of victims appropriately, but neither political side has the desire to compromise and admit there are two different paths to solving the problem.)
Or ten different paths. Homelessness can be caused by mental illness, domestic violence, loss of employment, drug abuse, etc. … even just falling through the cracks of the system. I’ve had 2 friends that briefly became homeless because they thought the roommate to whom they paid rent was passing it on to the landlord – until they were suddenly evicted without warning.
It’s a complex problem.
First off, the subway is a means of transportation not a underground homeless shelter. Secondly, the city and society should do more to help them. Let’s also admit that allowing the homeless to live underground in the subways does not actually address their needs and puts an undue burden on the MTA and also raises significant issues that could impact future ridership.
Never understood why MTA didn’t make some simple changes to Metrocard pay scheme. The Metrocard should only allow several hours of use, after that you would have to swipe in again. Then NYPD transit could randomly ask any rider for their card and see when they swiped in. If you’ve exceeded your # of hours then you could be given a ticket (and ejected from the subway).
Well … not so easy. The police don’t even address the station squatters when they encounter them. They even sit for hours in passageways outside of fare control where no ticket is necessary. Witness the western corridor at 35th and Broadway.
Giving police a pretext to stop-n’-swipe would be just another excuse for abuse of power. They are not train conductors and they’re not paid to be.
Single fare cards would be thrown away after they’re swiped – as they often are.
Most homeless people aren’t likely to pay tickets as they are rarely employed.
Those homeless who are employed might be holding monthlies and simply swipe in again – and again – and spend as much time as they want in the subway.
Addressing homelessness and its many causes is the way to reduce their presence in the subway. Treating the symptom is just paying for a pound of cure instead of an ounce of prevention.
Changing the system to swipe-in swipe-out WMATA/DC style would give in system times. Mandate swiping of single fare MCs to get out. Lost your MC? you pay $2.75 to exit at a MVM inside fare control.
LOL … In-system times mean nothing to the homeless. Forcing people to pay to leave the fare control system is just another way of assuring that they will stay. You’re threatening them with what they might already want.
“I’m homeless, I have no money, I can’t pay to get out!!!”
Just last night, between 6-6:30, I went down the N/R stairs at 22nd & Broadway to find a homeless person comfortably nestling in for the night, right at the foot of the stairs – outside of fare control! No police officer wants to waste their time enforcing loitering laws against homeless people. Summoning people who can’t pay the fine is not a path up the career ladder.
Homeless people occupying the subway is not a subway problem – it’s a homelessness problem. It isn’t caused by deficiencies in how, where or when we collect fares. It’s caused by having too many homeless people.
Fix the homelessness problem.
I blame Bush.
I thought Giulani made it legal to kill the homeless…
In all seriousness, the MTA needs to do something about this. The subway is used by 5-7 million people daily as their primary means of transit. Mentally ill, addicted, unsanitary, and/or dangerous people should not be using it as their residence/toilet. Forcible eviction is the only solution I see.
Well, fair’s fair, I suppose. Bloomberg, Quinn, and their cronies are dangerous people too, but they’ve self-evicted from the subway.