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“[The Mayor] said the city would back away from the hotel program after complaints from residents in some neighborhoods about quality of life problems they blame on the facilities.”
Here’s a thread w/ thoughts on quality of life, based on my reporting: https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/08/17/de-blasio-city-to-begin-moving-homeless-people-out-of-hotels-after-complaints-1309540
Here’s a thread w/ thoughts on quality of life, based on my reporting: https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/08/17/de-blasio-city-to-begin-moving-homeless-people-out-of-hotels-after-complaints-1309540
If you’re a single adult, it’s very unlikely you’ll have a room to yourself, or even with just one other roommate, at a homeless shelter. People generally sleep in cots, bunk beds, or even on the floor, 10-12 people to a room on average. https://www.thecity.nyc/2020/3/31/21210382/too-close-for-comfort-inside-nyc-s-biggest-homeless-shelter
The majority of the est 60k ppl in NYC who are homeless sleep in shelters. Since April, the city has transferred abt 13k ppl from shelters to hotels to protect them from COVID-19 & help flatten the curve. It’s what the CDC recommends. Here’s that guidance: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/homeless-shelters/plan-prepare-respond.html
Prior to and throughout the hotel transfers, the city developed an isolation plan for people in the shelters. But one can imagine how challenging it must be to practice social distancing under those circumstances, all things considered. https://www.thecity.nyc/2020/5/14/21259527/homeless-sent-from-subways-to-social-distancing-nightmares
A June study by the Coalition for the Homeless [ @NYHomeless] found that homeless people in NY, most of whom sleep in shelters, were dying of COVID-19 at a rate **61% higher** than the general population. https://www.thecity.nyc/2020/6/15/21292127/covid-tore-through-new-york-homeless-shelters-but-residents-were-kept-in-the-dark
I spoke with tons of ppl who had no idea if others in their shelter were sick (not even their roommates) or if there were any outbreaks at their shelter — the city doesn’t share that info. This was the case for people working in shelters, too. https://www.thecity.nyc/2020/6/15/21292127/covid-tore-through-new-york-homeless-shelters-but-residents-were-kept-in-the-dark
Needless to say, people were really scared to stay in shelters during the pandemic.
Some decided to leave their shelters and try their luck on the streets or the subways, or in other settings not meant for human habitation.
Some decided to leave their shelters and try their luck on the streets or the subways, or in other settings not meant for human habitation.
In my conversations w/ ppl exp homelessness, their goal is to secure housing and not be homeless anymore.
But in the absence of that, what I heard over & over again is ppl wanting a clean, private space to practice social distancing. Hotels, while temporary, could provide that.
But in the absence of that, what I heard over & over again is ppl wanting a clean, private space to practice social distancing. Hotels, while temporary, could provide that.
It’s also one measure that epidemiologists, local and federal health authorities, and physicians who study the health effects on homelessness [such as @MKushel and @KellyMDoran] said was necessary in the interest of harm reduction, saving lives, and flattening the curve.
Now, after complaints from some neighborhoods where some those hotels temporarily sheltering homeless people were located, the city’s going to move people back to the shelters
NYC’s infection rate now is very low. It’s a remarkable turnaround from where we were in the Spring.
But it’s all but certain NYC will have a second wave of the virus in the Fall, when the flu season kicks in again.
But it’s all but certain NYC will have a second wave of the virus in the Fall, when the flu season kicks in again.
The city’s undertaking in transferring people to hotels from shelters was enormously complicated and mired in bureaucratic red tape. The Mayor said only two weeks ago that the city planned to keep people in hotels until there was a COVID-19 vaccine. https://queenseagle.com/all/city-will-house-homeless-in-hotels-until-covid-subsides-mayor-says
One has to wonder then, what is the rationale of moving people back to the shelters if the city might have to move people back to the hotels again, in the event of a second wave? Will the city have to build its hotel infrastructure from scratch — again?
To paraphrase Kim Phillips-Fein in the NYRB last week, on #DefundTheNYPD: What do we mean by ‘quality of life?’ Is it better represented by “clean” neighborhoods free of homeless people, or by providing those same ppl the space experts say is necessary to flatten the curve?
If you’re a DHS/DSS, DOHMH, or otherwise city employee working on these plans, I’d love to talk to you. You can reach me securely at [email protected]. Or, DM for my Signal #.
