New York City’s Great Shame: Homelessness is at its Highest Point Since the Great Depression Posted on July 20, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in New York Daily News New York is a great city and New Yorkers are a proud bunch. Yet one has to question if they have a right to be proud when thousands of New Yorkers have to live in homeless shelters or sleep on the streets. The great shame of the city is that homelessness is at ..Read More
The Solution to Homelessness is Housing, Not Policing Posted on July 17, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in Gotham Gazette Mayor de Blasio and Commissioner Bratton were confronted by the growing disorder associated with homeless mentally ill people at a press conference on Wednesday. The mayor responded that the city is both relying on aggressive “quality of life” policing and ..Read More
Housing Advocates Stage Sleep-in to Push for More Affordable Accommodation Posted on July 17, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in New York Daily News A group of housing advocates staged a sleep-in to encourage the city to build more affordable housing. About 200 protesters took to the streets Thursday evening to call on Mayor de Blasio to set aside 15,000 residential units for the homeless. The group marche ..Read More
Richard Gere Experiences Homelessness for Film, Stresses Need for Human Connection Posted on July 16, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in The Washington Times Even Richard Gere had a tough time panhandling. For his role as George, a homeless man suffering from mental illness in the upcoming film “Time Out of Mind,” the actor went “undercover” in New York, standing on street corners and beseeching people for ..Read More
Formerly Homeless Tenants in Prospect-Lefferts Building Fight Order to Move Posted on July 16, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in DNAinfo Dozens of formerly homeless families whose landlord wants them out of his Clarkson Avenue building are fighting back against the order — as they and their legal advocates say they have every right to stay. Residents of 60 Clarkson Ave. said they received not ..Read More
Private Homeless Shelters are Exactly as Awful as You’d Think Posted on July 16, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in Quartz Under state law, New York City is obligated to provide shelter to anyone who asks for it. A July 2015 report (pdf) released by the city’s Department of Homeless Services (DHS) puts the total count of New York’s sheltered individuals at more than 55,000—n ..Read More
Bratton: Media Attention Worsening Man’s Schizophrenia Posted on July 15, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in Capital New York The homeless man whose picture has appeared several times on the cover of the New York Post because of his habit of urinating in public is a schizophrenic whose symptoms are being exacerbated by all the media attention, police commissioner Bill Bratton said We ..Read More
Inside the Notorious Privately Run Homeless Shelter That Costs NYC Millions Posted on July 14, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in Gothamist After five years in a two-bedroom apartment at a privately run homeless shelter in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Merlinda Fernandez is getting her own apartment at Marcus Garvey Village in Brownsville. The low-income complex has problems with crime, concentrated ..Read More
The Homeless Man Who Graduated Harvard Law With John Roberts Posted on July 13, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in The Washington Post The judge settled his gaze on the homeless man accused of sleeping beside an office building in downtown Washington. It was a Saturday afternoon in early April at D.C. Superior Court, and Alfred Postell, a diagnosed schizophrenic, stood before Judge Thomas Mot ..Read More
