An unidentified middle-aged man died after a fire engulfed an unused room in the Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street F station. MTA officials believe the man was living in the room, which is located about 150 feet from one of the F train platforms. Firefighters were called to the station around 8:30 last night to investigate reports of smoke in the station. They soon traced the smoke to the room, which the MTA says had been used for communications. more ›

Could we solve the city's growing homeless problem without a shelter system? According to a report being released today by Picture the Homeless and the Center for Community Planning & Development at Hunter College we totally could. In a survey of just 20 of the city's community districts the groups found enough vacant housing to put up 199,981 individuals. Hey, it worked for the homeless guy squatting in Ann Curry's UWS townhouse... more ›

Awww: Samantha Garvey, the Long Island teen whose story of academic success amid family difficulty inspired many, may be headed to Washington D.C. for the State of the Union Address. Rep. Steve Israel invited Garvey to be his guest; he told Newsday, "The State of the Union attracts the most powerful people on Earth, but I really think Samantha can teach them all a lesson in perseverance." more ›

After Newsday featured a homeless 17-year-old girl—who happened to be named one of the country's 300 Intel Science Talent Search semi-finalists—on its front page yesterday, her perseverance prompted an immediate reaction. Suffolk County officials announced that they had found a three-bedroom home for Samantha Garvey and her family while an anonymous donor stepped up to save the Garvey's dog from being euthanized at a pound. She said, "It is absolutely amazing and incredible." more ›

Newsday has the most aww- and awe-worthy story of the day: A feature on Brentwood High School senior Samantha Garvey who is one of 300 semi-finalists for the annual Intel Science Talent Search. Only Garvey happens to be living in a homeless shelter. She told the paper, "I want better, so that's why I do well in school." more ›

Police are seeking a man who called 911 from a Tribeca pay phone last night and confessed to killing his girlfriend. A police source tells the Daily News that the call came in around 6:42 p.m. from a phone at Church and Warren Streets and that initially it was deemed to be from a "suicidal male." "He said he wanted to hurt himself," the source says. "Then he confessed to having killed his girlfriend. Then he ran off and left the line open." Thirty minutes later, a 48-year-old woman was found dead of apparent head trauma inside an apartment on East 174th Street in the Bronx. more ›

Stupid kids are still making videos of them attacking the homeless? Really? Sadly, yes. Two New Jersey men (Taylor Giresi, 20, and a 17-year-old accomplice) have been arrested after police say they uploaded videos of them beating, stealing from and taunting a homeless man in Wall Township. "About to go beat up this bum," one of the men says before doing just that in one of the videos, a stomach-churning compilation of which you can see after the jump. "Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or whatever the f**k you are," they call out giddily after the attack is over. more ›

The NY Times ran across an obscure NYC rule that prohibits anyone hailing a taxi cab for someone "not in his or her social company." Which is why Juan Bannister, a homeless man who got a cab for someone at 7th Avenue in Midtown (and received a $1.50 tip), got into trouble with the law. Wow, if only cops would be that hard on drivers who blow stop signs or fail to yield to pedestrians! more ›

Earlier this month, a 75-year-old woman was beaten with a nail-studded wooden plank by a homeless man in midtown Manhattan. Andre Lineaux, 51, admitted to police that he repeatedly beat Kim Chong, 74, with the 2-by-4 piece of wood. And he says that it was an homage to a Stephen King novel, Storm Of The Century. more ›

People living and working in Chelsea are raging against a months-old homeless facility on West 25th Street, which they say is filled with "mentally ill derelicts" who "masturbate and defecate in the street" right after they "aggressively harass women." more ›

When Governor Cuomo passed his belt-strangling budget back in April, one of the things that ended up on the cutting room floor was funding for the city's Advantage program, which helped 15,000 households with working family members by subsidizing up to $1,100 a month toward rent for up to two years. The state formerly paid $65 million toward the program, which has a budget of $140 million (out of which the feds pay $27 million and the city pays $48 million). With that money cut off, the city decided to scrap the whole thing, and now, after a court battle, a judge has give the Bloomberg administration the green light to do so. more ›

A woman was found dead on the sidewalk this morning at Avenue B and East 7th street in the East Village. According to police at the scene, the deceased was a homeless park regular at Tompkins Square Park, and no criminality is suspected. She was found at around 7 a.m. this morning, and has not yet been identified. more ›

Parts of McCarren Park are being overtaken by drunk homeless people who poop in public and scare the neighborhood children—and it's no laughing matter. The Brooklyn Paper today picked up the story that New York Shitty's been covering for months, giving it a glib little treatment pitting "neighborhood nannies" against "liquored-up vagabonds" who stink up the children's playground in the park. But the real issue here goes way beyond just poop, says Heather Letzkus of NY Shitty. more ›

DSK isn't the only person getting charges against them dropped this week. DNAinfo today has the heartening story of how one persistent man was able to prove that his brother did not in fact kill a homeless man in Union Square with a bike lock earlier this summer. Though witnesses had sworn that 29-year-old Keenan Bryce was the one who threw the lock at homeless man Stanley Novak early on the morning of July 8, Bryce's brother was able to prove them wrong. more ›

Cyndi Lauper's been relatively quiet these days (barring the occasional rent dispute), but it looks like she's been using that downtime to devote herself to a good cause: helping the city's homeless LGBT youth. Lauper is putting the finishing touches on the appropriately-named True Colors Residence, the first permanent, supportive housing facility for LGBT youth in New York State, set to open on West 154th St near Frederick Douglass Blvd on Sept 1. more ›

It's not as gimmicky as it sounds: Queens-based artist and activist Yusef Ramelize is spending the week of August 21st as a homeless man in Grand Central in an effort to raise money and awareness for the issue, in a campaign he's calling, appropriately, Homeless for One Week. We spoke to Ramelize, a creative manager at a publishing company by day, about the project. more ›

Maybe the police need two mobile command units at Union Square? Early yesterday morning a 56-year-old homeless man, Stanley Novak, was beaten to a pulp with a bicycle lock by another homeless man, police say. Novak later died from his injuries at Bellevue Hospital. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg stuck his fancy loafers directly in his mouth at a press conference today when, unrelated to the topic at hand, he scolded a reporter for saying the subway is a "last bastion of quiet, with the exception of the occasional panhandler." Mid-question Bloomie turned to the reporter to chide him, as Rachel Sterne smiled on, that "There aren't very many panhandlers left, c'mon, that's a cheap shot at an agency that has worked very hard to fix that problem." more ›

Homeless woman Tanya McDowell is due in court in Norwalk this morning to facing charges that she illegally enrolled her son in a local elementary school. Educational lobbying groups are planning a news conference in support of McDowell, a single mother with past criminal convictions, for enrolling her five-year-old son in the Norwalk school system under her friend's public housing address, when authorities claim he should have gone to a school in Bridgeport. more ›

There's nothing that necessitates a drink more than a trip to Penn Station, but the owners of bars in and around the transit hub say homeless people are ruining business with their panhandling. During a Midtown South Precinct Community Council meeting Thursday night, business owners called for a crackdown on beggars, some of which come up with elaborate, long running schemes to garner sympathy. Then again, the homeless people do provide a nice scapegoat; without them, customers will have to face the fact that they're just drinking in the Penn Station T.G.I. Friday's. more ›

Some compassion-fatiguedUpper West Side residents are probably pretty hopeful about this lawsuit: The Post reports that the owners of two single-room occupancy buildings—the Dexter House at 345 W. 86th St. and the Hotel Alexander at 308 W. 94th St.—are suing to block an "anti-flophouse law set to go into effect May 1." more ›

A homeless woman was found dead on the sidewalk under the scaffolding outside St. Brigid's Church in the East Village yesterday morning. A friend of the woman told the NY Times, "She was a very beautiful person, and she had a beautiful heart." EV Grieve walked by the scene last night and found that someone lit a candle in her memory. more ›

Police found a homeless man dead this morning, and they believe he burned to death while trying to keep himself warm during the ice storm. Nassau police say that they found the man, who hasn't been identified yet, behind a kosher food market at a strip mall in Long Island. And it seems that it was a fatal combination of cleanliness and cooking fuel that did him in. more ›