New York—The homeless will be feeling the pinch of our receding economy when temperatures fall below freezing this year.
In a recent press conference the non-profit organization Coalition for the Homeless made an appeal to Mayor Bloomberg to reconsider the City government’s decision to downsize shelter space for the homeless. The plan is to downsize NYC’s network of “Drop in” shelters and restrict faith based, volunteer run, operations.
"As temperatures plummet below freezing, we cannot make it harder for the most vulnerable homeless New Yorkers to get the services they need. Taking away much needed shelter beds doesn't decrease the number of New Yorkers who have to sleep on the street, it increases it. This is the common sense, numbers-based type of logic that this Administration usually likes to see," said Councilmember Bill de Blasio in a press release.
The City claims that their cold weather plan “Code Blue” is effective, saying they have teams on patrol for at-risk people when weather conditions get dangerous. Their web site says the teams are trained to look for the signs of hypothermia and will encourage any homeless they see to come inside for a hot meal.
The Coalition’s report said that in 2008, each night an average of 929 homeless adults were provided with overnight shelter placements in drop-in centers and faith-based shelters, with higher numbers in the winter months. Under the Bloomberg administration’s proposal, there would be between 350 and 450 faith-based beds, reducing overnight shelter by at least 51 percent.
According to the Coalition’s report, drop-in centers operate seven days per week, 24 hours a day, reflecting the reality that many homeless people seek help at all hours of the day and night. Street homeless individuals frequently seek shelter late at night when outdoor temperatures begin to fall sharply.
The Bloomberg administration proposal calls for the imposition of a “business hours model” which will end overnight placements and restrict services at drop-in centers to the hours of 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Individuals who find themselves in need of help after hours will be forced to remain on the streets.
The city claims that the restructuring will actually provide more beds. They say that homeless sleeping on the chairs provided by the non-municipal options are not a good option and that the homeless deserve a bed. Both sides agree with this, but if there are no beds then chairs are better than nothing and the number of chairs being slept in provides witness to the need for them.
The city-run homeless shelters are packed, so a lot of homeless people who might accept help would rather spend the night in a chair in one of the private shelters. According to the report, many of the most hard-to-serve, street-bound homeless people find these smaller, faith-based settings much less threatening.
