October 4, 2019 NEW YORK, NY – In response to the recently released recommendations of the MTA’s Task Force on Homelessness in the NYC Subway System, the Coalition for the Homeless issued the following statement.Giselle Routhier, Policy Director, said: “The MTA Task Force’s report offers more of the same as the City and the State continue with their misguided and cruel race to see which entity can more aggressively criminalize and harass homeless New Yorkers in the subway system. The report repeatedly decries New Yorkers who “inappropriately” seek shelter within the transit system without ever raising the systemic failures that have left thousands of individuals with no better option than to sleep on the subways. We’ll say it once more for those who still haven’t received the memo: If we want to help vulnerable New Yorkers move off the subways, we need to give them somewhere better to go. That means investing in more low-threshold safe haven shelters and fully committing to the creation of affordable permanent and supportive housing. By emphasizing further policing of homeless New Yorkers instead of devoting resources to the services and housing people actually need, the State has once again missed an opportunity to truly and humanely address homelessness.”
