Seeking Shelter in the Subway
By Jhonny Reyes Castro
Homelessness in New York City has reach record high levels in 2019. In September 62,391 homeless individuals were in shelters, including 14,962 homeless families and 22,083 homeless children, according to the Coalition for the Homeless. The number of homeless in city shelters is 59 percent higher than it was a decade ago, according to the agency.
The number of homeless in the trains also has increased 20 percent, rising to 2,178 in 2019 compared to 1,770 in 2018, according to Department of Homeless Services (DHS). An MTA taskforce on homeless said the trains and stations were “functioning as ill-equipped, de facto shelters.”
The 4 line, which connects Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn, has many sleeping on the train. A survey of 13 stations from Kingsbridge in the Bronx to Grand Central in Manhattan to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, revealed that there were at least three homeless people in each. Some were sleeping, others were asking for help in the train and some appeared to be intoxicated.
Homelessness in New York is something that doesn’t discriminate between race, income, or nationality. “The city needs to help us because we don’t have anything to eat or how to pay an apartment because I don’t have money,” said Anthony, a homeless man who is often on the platform of the 4 train at 161 Street by Yankee Stadium. Anthony said he had a good job once, a diploma, a career, but he lost everything.
Leonila Perez was on the platform on Yankee Stadium, waiting to take the 4 train to work. “I think it is so sad, the situation with the homeless in New York because they’re people without family and this weather situation is even dangerous for them,” said Perez. “I think Governor Andrew Cuomo needs to pay attention to the situation in the big city because those people are homeless since the excessive rent.”
Some straphangers say they feel unsafe on the platforms and the train. The NYPD revealed new safety measures in the subway in October 2019. The department says it will be monitoring more than 100 live cameras in dozens of subway stations to address homelessness. The MTA released its Homelessness Outreach Initiative 2019. The agency says it will increase its own police force by least 50 percent. In addition to crime prevention, a second responsibility of the force will be help individuals who need shelter.
In November Bill de Blasio announced Outreach NYC, a plan whereby 18,000 city workers will use 311 to alert social services about unsheltered homeless in the city. In December he launched a plan to spend $100 million to make the city’s shelters more appealing, “safe havens.”
A lack of affordable housing is the primary cause of homelessness but health concerns are also paramount, says Natalie Interiano, policy manager at Care for the Homeless, which provides comprehensive medical and mental health services for the homeless in the Bronx. Whereas the homeless used to come from the poorest zip codes in the city, they now come from all neighborhoods. According to a February 2019 report by Apartment List, the median rent for a one bedroom in New York City is $2118, a two bedroom $2,523 which is more than many lower income residents can afford.
“Homelessness is a traumatic experience and can have lasting health consequences,” says Interiano. “We are the health care provider at a drop-in center, the Living room, where our provider also accompanies a street outreach team to go out in the surrounding community to address the health care needs of those that are unsheltered.”
Care for the Homeless operates 24 health centers across four boroughs, seven of which are in the Bronx, and a 200-bed women’s shelter in the Bronx. “Our goal is to reduce the barriers for people to access appropriate health care, which is an important component in addressing a person’s housing instability.”