October 11, 2007
City Changes Homeless Policy, Critics Dismayed
The city is changing its policy to let homeless people in its shelters, a move that worries advocates. Starting Friday, anyone arriving at the Bronx intake shelter after 5PM who has had their living situations investigated (many people been investigated when they apply for long-term housing) and were deemed ineligible for housing will be questioned again and turned away if nothing has changed. The city views this as a way to close a loophole that has been abused by families who may have other options, like staying with a friend or relative. From the NY Times:
The city had allowed families who had been ruled ineligible to be given shelter for one night if they reapplied after 5 p.m. Some families using this emergency provision would keep their belongings with them and repeat the process [see this earlier Times article], moving to a new shelter the next day, often late at night, the city said.The number of families using emergency shelter increased this past summer, and the city and advocates alike believe that some families have been using emergency shelters for weeks, even months. Still, the Coalition for the Homeless issued a statement criticizing the new policy, noting that it may "force many homeless families to return to unsafe living situations or out onto the street," and that when the Bloomberg administration conducted a pilot of this program, the Coalition "ended up paying to shelter many of these families in hotel rooms and almost all were later deemed eligible for shelter" - because the denials were incorrect.“Families began to realize if they came in after 5 they could evade that accountability,” said Linda I. Gibbs, the city’s deputy mayor for health and human services. “What we are doing now is closing the loophole.”
The Coalition adds that in spite of the Mayor's promises, homelessness is up 11% over last year and the number of families in shelters is at a record high. The Coalition has information about how family homelessness is due to housing affordability, not welfare, here.
Photograph of a homeless woman by New York Daily Photo
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This policy is fucked up. What if you have shitty relatives?
Why exactly is this young white woman, casually reading a book while drinking a Starbucks coffee supposed to elicit my sympathy?
#2 ... I know!!! WTF?? She's got a grande double skim low fat chai mochachino with a vanilla-tini squirt and no foam ... those things are like 10 bucks. And whenever I see homeless people smoking???? A pack of cigarettes is $7.
Good Morning, Jen.
Here's your first typo watch of the morning:
(many people been investigated[...]
Did you mean to write many people have been investigated, many people are investigated? Can't quite tell.
I'm not trying to be snarky by saying this but I would love to be a copy editor for Gothamist if you guys ever had an open position. I'll take an edit test and everything! I like reading the site for the stories, too.
I see this woman every day. She is a very severe drug addict. I've seen her slip from almost composed to a ghost of a human being. She has a dealer or boyfriend who helps us out, but lets not start with the outrage. She was definitely once educated, she used to draw as well as read. This is an older picture. She's moved from Spring, the last time I saw her she was carrying on a conversation with herself.
But go ahead and give her a hard time, because you are so in a place to judge.
Uhh, Jen, I don't think that girl in the picture is homeless, I think she just happens to be sitting on a messy stoop...
renting in new york city with a family sounds difficult. i can only imagine how hard it would be if your wages don't cover your rent and living expenses for your family particularly as a single parent. The policy of new york's version of section 8, as i understand it, demands that you be on welfare to keep an apartment. so if you have a job and are part of the working poor, you can't get section 8. New york might price everyone out of the city at this rate.
she is homeless, and #5 is correct - she used to be on Spring (but i haven't seen her lately) and she was clearly both homeless and a drug addict. but what, just because she's not covered in filth and holding a cup with some spare change means she's not homeless? wake up people. if that's your definition of homeless, perhaps you need to wake up and see what's going on around you.
Whenever I see a young, white "homeless" person I am immediately skeptical. Drugs, bad hair day, whatever. Pick yourself up and get some help.
jen chung can't write. please hire someone in her place that can.
I think they should let anyone in to a shelter who wants to be there - I can't imagine someone would want to spend a night in a homeless shelter just for giggles.
How dare the poor enjoy anything other than poverty! Starbucks and recreational reading are only for the bourgeois!
She wakes up early every morning
Just to do her hair now
Because she cares yeah
Her day oh wouldn't be right
Without her make up
She's never had a make up
She's just like you and me
But she's homeless, she's homeless
As she stands there singing for money.
La da dee la dee da
La da dee la dee da
La da dee la dee da
La da dee la dee da
La da dee la dee da
La da dee la dee da
In my sleep I see her begging
Preaching please
Although her body is not mine
I ask now why God why
She's just like you and me
But she's homeless, she's homeless
As she stands there singing for money
La da dee la dee da
La da dee la dee da
La da dee la dee da
La da dee la dee da
La da dee la dee da
La da dee la dee da
La da dee la dee da
La da dee la dee da
La da dee la dee da
La da dee la dee da
white women have no excuse to be homeless
Isw the city kidding? Do they think anyone prefers a homeless shelter over any other sort of living situation? Plenty of people would rather take their chances on the street rather than deal with all the problems they encounter in shelters. If someone is lining up for a night in a shelter --it's their last resort.
As for the people who don't understand why a young, apparently educated person owould be living on the street, you are incredibly bllinkered and naive. Learn about mental illness and drug addiction and pull your precious little head out of your orifice.
This article is about homeless families if any of you bothered to read it at all.
Jen Chung, I have been kind enough to copy and paste your article with corrections. You are the typo queen!
"In a move that worries advocates, the city is changing its policy on how it allows homeless people to enter its shelters. Starting Friday, anyone arriving at the Bronx intake shelter after 5PM who has had their living situations investigated (many people HAVE been investigated when they apply for long-term housing) and were deemed ineligible for housing will be questioned again and turned away if nothing has changed. The city views this as a way to close a loophole that has been abused by families who may have other options, like staying with a friend or relative. From the NY Times:
The city had allowed families who had been ruled ineligible to be given shelter for one night if they reapplied after 5 p.m. Some families using this emergency provision would keep their belongings with them and repeat the process [see this earlier Times article], moving to a new shelter the next day, often late at night, the city said.
“Families began to realize if they came in after 5 they could evade that accountability,” said Linda I. Gibbs, the city’s deputy mayor for health and human services. “What we are doing now is closing the loophole.”
The number of families using emergency shelters increased this past summer, and the city and advocates alike believe that some families have been using the shelters for weeks, even months. Still, the Coalition for the Homeless issued a statement criticizing the new policy, noting that it may "force many homeless families to return to unsafe living situations or out onto the street," and that when the Bloomberg administration conducted a pilot of this program, the Coalition "ended up paying to shelter many of these families in hotel rooms and almost all were later deemed eligible for shelter" - because the denials were incorrect.
The Coalition adds that, in spite of the Mayor's promises, homelessness is up 11% over last year and the number of families in shelters is at a record high. The Coalition has information about how family homelessness is due to housing affordability, not welfare, here."
somehting tells me she didn't consent to this photo being taken.
but who cares! post that shit anyway! this is gothamist!
the level of ignorance (a homeless white woman?!) on this board is appalling.
That homeless woman is on Prince (or is it spring, I can't remember) EVERY day, and if that photo was taken recently, I figure she still is. I lived there for a year last year and would pass her every day walking to the subway to get to work. She is always reading.
I think anyone with that kind of regularity should be able to hold down a job.
The city is not "changing its policy to let homeless people in its shelters," as the post reads--rather, the question is whether or not these people are homeless at all. Additionally, it is rather vague to refer to "advocates" in the first sentence--advocates of what or whom? Homelessness? Advocates for homeless individuals and families?
Based on the way that the loophole is framed in this post, I believe that the writer misunderstands it. Individuals and families that were otherwise ineligible for housing were showing up at the intake facility after 5, as a loophole allowed such individuals and families to be given emergency shelter for one night; many would repeat this routine night after night, abusing the system.
#11, sadly, many individuals will "spend a night in a homeless shelter for giggles," as it is a fast-track to subsidized housing.
somehting tells me she didn't consent to this photo being taken.
but who cares! post that shit anyway! this is gothamist!
Only homeless persons (formerly known as bums)from "protected minority groups" are entitled to a modicum of privacy!
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH!!!
mangrilla worry about yourself and thank god every day that you aren't in the position of that woman. You know nothing about her life, so don't make assumptions.
that homeless woman is kinda hot. I'll give her a job. you know what I mean? like cleaning my toilets. what? you were expecting sexual favors? she's homeless for chris sakes.
She's not homeless. That's a $1600/month sublet she found on CraigsList.
alot of people put themselves into these stupid situations.
government can't do everything.
First of all, guest and post #21, the way you described the loophole is the exact understanding that I gained from this article. However, as I read in this article, the Coalition for the Homeless reports that many of those initially deemed ineligible are late deemed eligible upon appeal - having been erroneously pushed out of the system.
This is a problem that is only going to get worse if trends in the housing market in the city and in the country continue in their current direction. I would be less angry with those who feel these families should be kicked out of emergency shelters if they weren't the same people who will be complaining when they notice a rise in the number of people on the streets.
If you get addicted to drugs and/or alcohol, you had it coming.
Wow, it didn't take long at all for THIS to become about race.
That that I know where to find her, I'm going to get some lighter fluid and...
Is this the same girl I that is constantly doodling or drawing in her sketch pad?
looks like a pratt student doing performance art in soho!
This week in Gothamist comments: "Homeless people have a right to Starbucks."
The homeless deserve compassion but I also think it's fair to say that buying an expensive cup of coffee isn't the best way for them to spend their limited resources.
I'm pretty sure she's reading "Into the Wild" which is pretty interesting since it's a non-fiction book about an educated twenty-two year old donating all his savings and burning the money in his wallett to try to live off the wilderness alone in Alaska....just sayin'..
I lived in Soho for about 2 years until recently and saw that woman every day. Don't judge her by the color of her skin and assume she's just lazy and jobless. I'm fairly certain she's schitzophrenic (though I couldn't say for sure if that's technically what it is). My point is, don't be so judgmental.
I am surprised to see a young looking white girl [pic] homeless. This suppose to be "White America", how can she be homeless. Has no one offered the woman a place to stay, I am sure she would do ANYTHING for a warm place and meal....anything! Shit, if that white girl would be my personal sex slave, she can stay with me. She is a looker.
This whole thing has the horse ass-first in front of the cart. If you help a family achieve a safe and dignified space in which to actually be a family, you are going to come out so far ahead in the long run both financially and in terms of the health of the civilization, it shouldn't even be an issue. Anybody here ever been a kid standing in a line with your family hoping for a place to sleep for just one night and have someone look up from their clipboard and say "Nope"? And you wonder why people are chasing other people around with kitchen knives in this city. Jesus H.
If she washes up, shaves off all the hair below her neck, and wears a Britney Spears schoolgirl outfit I'll let her sleep in my bathtub.
who said anything about deserve? If they want they buy, and then they get. Who knows? Maybe that cup was found, maybe someone gave it to her? Who knows!!!???
There is no script for a person living on the street. How dare you judge anyone who sleeps on the street. Especially from what you gather from a single snapped image. Your comments reveal a lot about your perspective.
I can't believe there are that many people out there walking around with no hearts.
Jen, thank you for posting this story. I know you didn't expect the backlash.
thankfully, lead is still cheap, around $10 for 50.
I'd hit it.
why do homeless people have to look so dirty?
Set that BIATCH on fire!
An aside: #13...i love that damned song.
but anyhow, i used to see this girl everyday on spring on my way to work. she would NEVER ask for money. for a while, i thought she was just doing a performance (oh, my art school addled mind), because she seemed really out of place—she's young, a woman, seems like she at some point had together.
I feel for her, i feel for our city's displaced; proof positive that our country doesn't care about its poor.
I don't think it's Into the Wild, it looks too thick to be that book, but I'd be interested in anyone who has any photoshop/CTU zoom skills to figure out what the book is.
I've seen her decline over the years walking by her daily. sad.
ThisCharmingMan:
I don't know how she got the coffee. If it was bought for her, I think someone could have contributed to her health and well-being better. If she bought it herself, I think she could have spent more wisely.
It's sad that she's fallen through the cracks. Maybe the attention she gets from this will lead someone to help her get off the streets and out of poverty.
Abysmal! Isn't life tough enough?
"If she bought it herself, I think she could have spent more wisely."
More wisely? Please let us know what a possibly mentally ill homeless person could do with $4.50 that would be wise enough for you? A security deposit on an apartment, perhaps?
Dude, the homeless are people just like you. If she wants a coffee and happens to have enough money for it, let her buy a coffee. Jesus. She doesn't have enough problems without you standing over her shoulder and deciding which purchases are wise and which are not?
49: We're all making a lot of assumptions. You're assuming she's a victim. I'm assuming she makes bad choices. We're probably both right. The simple truth is: There are better ways for ALL OF US to spend out money than a $4.50 cup of coffee.
If she managed to save that $4.50 every day, one day she could afford a bus ticket home to family or to or even, one day, to put down a security deposit.
instead of coffee, I'm guessing some here would feel better if it were alcohol.
thankfully, I have lead which is still cheap.
If the homeless are receiving public services than the public has a right to tell them how to spend their money.
sorry, my friend.
you don't have a say where your money goes to. NONE AT ALL.
hate to break it to you.
molon labe.
Commenter #5 here again. I'm pretty sure she is an addict. She is now on University. There was a man who I've seen a few times who was not so badly off that would bring her to the place on Spring St and seemed to fetch her at night. Occasionally I saw him bring food. I've seen him with some other thugs as well. My guess is that she's a prostitute as well since she's a youngish addict in the care of a more dominant male.
I know a lot of you people don't feel for addicts, but I do. Yes they made bad choices but I certainly don't wish them dead. I'd like to see them get some help. This woman once looked like someone who could pull herself up, she used to keep herself more together and look kinda attractive (this is definitely an older picture). She's pretty much completely gone now. I give her money from time to time and I think other people by her coffee. Sometimes that's better for people, to give coffee or food, knowing the money will be spent on drugs. At a certain point you just sort of hope you don't walk past and find her dead. Its bad enough seeing her talk to herself or seeing her just absolutely dissolve from person to animal.
Ah well. Someone will just say something snarky now, because its the internet.
you're not the only one who's addicted to addicts.
I can't stay away from the HBO docs on them, the streewalkers and pimps.
if you want to know more about her, click on the photo bloggers link.
“49: We're all making a lot of assumptions. You're assuming she's a victim. I'm assuming she makes bad choices. We're probably both right. The simple truth is: There are better ways for ALL OF US to spend out money than a $4.50 cup of coffee.
If she managed to save that $4.50 every day, one day she could afford a bus ticket home to family or to or even, one day, to put down a security deposit.”
Hey, all I said was that if she wants to spend $4.50 on a cup of coffee, that is none of your damn business. That’s it.
If you really want to believe there is some perfectly sane, healthy person out there with no problems who just “oopsed” her way into living on the street, go ahead. But I’m not sure where you get this happy family idea from. If there is a family waiting with open arms for her to save up $4.50 every day until she can afford a bus ticket home, then there is probably a family waiting to wire money for that same bus ticket upon receipt of a collect phone call.
Though I do like your security deposit idea. Just think… if she sets her sights on a nice $600/m walk-up in Spanish Harlem, that $4.50 a day will get her there in just under eight years! Not bad! Of course then there’s first month’s rent. Maybe there’s some other unwise habit she can give up for that. Dentyne Ice? The Post? Toothpaste? Hmmm. What do you think, Mike D? What are some other unwise habits this girl can give up?