Posted on May 10, 2020 by Greg B. Smith in The City The City, By Greg B. Smith The convoy arrived in the chilly Manhattan darkness around 1:30 a.m.: vehicles pulling up one after the other outside 30th Street Men’s Shelter, the city’s biggest refuge for homeless New Yorkers. The passengers who emerged at this temporary bus stop all shared the same story: They’d just been expelled from the subway during the system’s new daily 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. COVID-19 scrubdown. Advocates question why, of all the places the city could bring these men, the Department of Homeless Services chose one of the most crowded shelters — one where social distancing has proved a major challenge, spurring efforts to reduce the headcount there.
