I Spent the 2015 Blizzard with New York's Homeless (Vice)

[inanna]

January 27, 2015
By John Surico

I met Alberto Lora at our last stop Monday night, outside the public plaza at the Sony building, on 55th Street and Madison Avenue, as he waited in line for whatever was left of the food being handed out by the Coalition for the Homeless workers. As the streets emptied and the blizzard settled in, Lora described how New York City's homelessness crisis is only getting worse. "The cops don't know what to do with us anymore," he told me. "The subways are packed at night with people sleeping like me. It's a major resource for us, so without it, I don't know what to do."

<snip>

Thousands of other New Yorkers were in the same spot: Stuck in what was supposed to be a historic blizzard, with nowhere to go. The number of homeless people in New York City has ballooned in the last decade, with roughly 60,000 people sleeping in shelters on a given night, and thousands more living on the streets. Incidentally, the city's annual homeless census was supposed to take place Monday but had to be postponed because of the storm.



Still, like clockwork, the Coalition for the Homeless soup vans met on the side of St. Bartholomew's Church at 7 PM Monday night, preparing to hit the emptying streets, now occupied only by the occasional delivery guy and inoperable bus. The service, which delivers some 1,000 nightly meals, couldn't miss a night—especially not last night. The vans made their rounds even during Hurricane Sandy, and the 2015 blizzard was no different.

<snip>

Each year, the Coalition has to order more soup and oranges to meet skyrocketing demands. The annual coat drive, hosted by New York Cares, was recently moved to a larger space. "I have cops coming up to me and asking, 'What do we do?'" Fitzgerald said while driving. "There's just too many homeless people, they say, and they're asking me about alternative venues to place them in."

cont'd...

Link: http://www.vice.com/read/i-spent-blizzard-2015-with-new-yorks-homeless-127

[Teutonic Samuel]

1. in this weather

it must be horrible to be a homeless person. it's a national disgrace for the 'richest' country on earth.

[Terra Alta]

2. Welcome to DU!

and you are right -- it is a disgrace that the "most prosperous nation on earth" has so many people who are homeless. Sad, really.

[Teutonic Samuel]

3. Thank you

And it's not just sad, it's infuriating.