NEW YORK—New York City will re-establish a domestic violence program in homeless shelters as part of broader efforts to upgrade security at the facilities, where family incidents are the most common form of violence, Mayor Bill de Blasio said March 15.
The New York Police Department will retrain all security staff at the Department of Homeless Services and place a police management team there. A more extensive reporting system will track incidents at shelters.
“I’ve been clear that we are going to own the challenges of homelessness and be transparent about how serious they are and what we are doing to deal with them,” de Blasio said in a statement.
Mary Brosnahan, president and CEO of the Coalition for the Homeless, said advocates “welcome the uniform standards of professionalism NYPD training can bring to front-line security officers in New York City shelters.”
In February, police arrested a fugitive suspected of stabbing his girlfriend and all three of her small children at a hotel used as homeless housing.
