Change Coming To NYC Shelters... And It's Not Good

Published November 23, 2008 @ 06:47PM PT

Thanks to this past election cycle, "change" has become synonymous with "good." But that doesn't always hold true, especially when "change" means you might not have a place to sleep at night.

Tonight over 6,500 homeless men, women, and children will sleep in a homeless shelter in New York City. About 500 hundred more people, however, will sleep in a chair or on the floor in a city-run homeless drop-in center. These homeless drop-in centers, which typically provide meals and showers, have for years served as ad-hoc shelters.

Now, it's not that these people wouldn't prefer a bed. Many would. The problem is that there simply aren't enough shelter accommodations for the city's growing homeless population. In addition, many people prefer the drop-in centers to the institutionalized shelters.

But change is near for these drop-in centers... but in the form of major budget cuts. The New York Times' City Room Blog reports:

Saying that it is looking to revamp the system so that homeless men don't sleep in chairs anymore, the city wants to close the drop in centers at 8 p.m., starting in June 2009. In return, it will add to the number of faith-based and other easy-to-access beds. "What is most important is that at the end of the night, individuals are coming off the street into a bed," said Heather Janik, the spokeswoman for the Department of Homeless Services.

But advocates for the homeless and some of the men and women who run the faith-based beds argue that the city doesn't understand its audiences. "The city says it doesn't like people sleeping on chairs at the drop in centers. We don't particularly like that, either. But it is a better alternative than sending them back to the street, which is essentially what will happen, of they are told they must go to some kind of city facility," said Douglas Grace, the director of outreach ministry at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church.

In either case, the cut in the drop-in centers means fewer slots on freezing nights, said Patrick Markee, a senior policy analyst with the Coalition for the Homeless. The growth in safe-haven beds and faith-based beds are a good thing, he said, but it is not happening quickly enough to make up for the more than 500 slots that will be lost per night, especially as the economy is growing weak and more homeless could end up on the street.

Seems to me that the Department of Homeless Services has their timing all wrong. We know that homelessness is increasing in NYC (and in cities all over the country). Homeless service organizations are already struggling. Now is not the time to impose changes on a system that is already straining to meet demand.

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Comments (5)

This is a hard call when I was homeless I stayed in shelters 99% of the time but there was one time I did go to drop in or " Over flow". A lot of the people at the overflow did not like the environment or structure at faith based shelters. Sometimes the faith based places have so many rules, that they prevent progress. Fatih based shelters and people that work nights for example are not a good mix. No homeless person should be required to quit there job to gain shelter.

Posted by Ly Syin Lobster on 11/26/2008 @ 12:33PM PT
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The mayor of Gotham is a multi-billionaire.

He is a man who will seek a third term as mayor because " NYC needs a Corporate titan at its helm ". The City Council altered rules and enabled him to run again. Madison Avenue and Bloomberg News will give you hundreds of reasons to re-elect him now. Corporatist Billionaires have the best interests of the working masses at heart......if they are traders on Wall Street with six or seven figure bonuses and $1M and up apartments in Manhattan.

The Christmas / Chanukkah season lasts a month at best. Then the hoopla to promote peace and prosperity or concern for your fellow man drops back to acceptable levels and losses.

And the band played on............

Posted by A B on 12/05/2008 @ 09:05AM PT
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The "Faith-Based" homeless agencies are the worst! If you refuse to convert to their religion you are denied a bowl of their food bank bean soup and thrown to the streets. That's how evil they are.

Posted by August Jones on 02/14/2009 @ 07:55AM PT
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The homeless shelter here in Winnipeg is a Christian organization, but they don't turn away non-Christians. You have to be a Christian to work there, but not to volunteer and not to use the services, though they do have Bible study classes available for people who want them.

Posted by Lianne Lavoie on 04/07/2009 @ 09:22AM PT
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Faith based prison camps is not who needs to run a homeless shelter, faith based is only doing it for the money, not for the welfare of the homeless people.

I know. I was homeless once, went to a salvation army place and I had to go to work, but according to them I had to go listen to some preacher who was degrading homeless people as sinners and god doesnt support them. I remember alot of us homeless people stand up and told him, If your Jesus was here among us and listening to the crap you are sprewing, he would call you a hypocritic..

we all walked out and told the minister we dont need their hate speech to degrade the homeless people.

Posted by Lara Nunes on 05/12/2009 @ 02:49PM PT
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Author

Shannon has worked in homeless shelters and service organizations in San Francisco, the Triangle region of North Carolina, and currently in the greater Boston area. She is a graduate student studying housing and urban policy at Tufts University.