NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has authorized a task force to address issues regarding the homeless and panhandling on its subways and buses.
The announcement at Wednesday’s MTA board meeting follows a letter earlier this month from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo urging the board to address the issue as part of its reorganization plan. In 2019, there are 2,178 homeless people living in the subway, an increase of 23% over 2018; MTA statistics showed trains were delayed 659 times in 2018 by homeless people engaging in disruptive and dangerous behavior including blocking train doors.
Additionally, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday that the Bowery Residents’ Committee, a nonprofit contractor hired by the MTA to help with homeless outreach, turned away the needy and provided inaccurate information to the agency. A report released Tuesday by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said that outreach workers at Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal manipulated time sheets and ignored people seeking help. Since 2010, the MTA has awarded more than $14 million in contracts to the nonprofit Bowery Residents’ Committee; a four-year audit by DiNapoli’s office found workers spent just 26% of their time conducting in-person outreach to homeless individuals, half of the 47% to 59% required by the MTA contract.
The Wall Street Journal reported [subscription required] that Grand Central Terminal’s lower level dining concourse revenues fell by 3% in 2018, in part because of homeless people using the space, according to the MTA. A board report mentioned that the continuing challenge of an aggressive homeless population thas not helped in promoting the food concourse as a convenient choice for dining,
Chairman Patrick Foye told reporters after the meeting, “Despite the fact that we are spending a significant amount of money on helping the homeless on the subway, obviously, the numbers dictate it hasn’t been successful. … We need to take a look at the social service vendors that we use for this service.”
In Washington DC the homeless advocates fought against the subway system closing the gates and locking everyone outside when the system did it’s nightly shut down. Many of the stations stunk or urine as soon as it warmed up. The homeless advocates demanded that bath rooms be put in so the homeless could go to the bathroom there. Any time the homeless were asked why they did not go to shelters instead the direct response was “the people there are crazy and we don’t feel safe”. Seeing as many of the homeless have mental health problems it is not a good idea to have them living in a public transportation facility.
One possible solution – I do not, repeat do not, advocate this, it is simply a possible solution – is to revive the vagrancy statutes, make them federal, and round up anyone who cannot come up with the requisite wherewithal. Then, ship them off to a work camp at the Nevada test range to fill in the holes. Or some such.
The above comments are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn fuerher.
AL. the Milwaukee Amtrak station has always been a pit stop for persons with no other place to “go”. Which is probably the least of problems in our society. Men needing a toilet isn’t the greatest threat to our safety. Hey, it’s my own pit stop if I’m downtown by bicycle, it’s a long ways back home. No one ever threw me out of the mens room.
The update is that this year a homeless encampment (Milwaukee’s first) has sprung up directly across the street.
Unfortunately, it is very much a political issue when the city, county, state, or federal government refuses to enforce the law. There are areas of San Francisco, Seattle, and a few other cities where it is both uncomfortable and unsafe to go, for that very reason. Is this why we pay taxes?
I just wish you guys would keep the politics out of the forum. Mr. Fisher nailed it; homelessness is a mental health issue, not a political issue. I have been a railfan my whole life and until recently, politics never came up. People enjoyed each other because of their common interest in rail.
Republicans aren’t predictably mean. They are predictably relentless for people to TRY to be responsible citizens!
JOHN P. Republicans “so predictably mean”? John what planet do you live on? Republicans are part and parcel of the welfare state. The difference in spending on social programs as between the Republicans and the Democrats isn’t large enough to measure.
At a time around 2005 when the Republicans controlled the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives, I asked my Congressman (then and now Frank James “Jim” Sensenbrenner, R- 5th Wisconsin CD) to name one federal program the Republicans had cut or one federal regulation the Republicans had eased. He couldn’t name one.
JOHN – By calling Republicans “so predictably mean” you are calling me “so predictably mean”. I don’t take that lightly. I’d match my charitable contributions and my charitable works to youyrs any day of the week. So try me.
BTW JOHN – Try voting. You won’t regret it if you do.
Transit agencies are looking for an answer as to why public transit ridership is on a glide path downwards. There are several reasons but crime and homelessness on the trains and buses is a large part of the answer.
Just a reminder, my searching Twitter for Wall Street Journal article headlines has allowed me to read the full article, which is normally behind the pay wall, as TRAINS mentioned.
Re: Brought to you by the Democrat party
Perhaps if the Republican Party wasn’t so predictably mean over the last 50 years more