Tag: HOMELESS
Among the many counterproductive and illogical ways that a city can fill its jails and overburden its criminal justice system is by criminalizing things that homeless people do in order to survive. New York City, perhaps more than any other city, excels at spending money on arrests, prosecutions, and jails, rather than on programs that […]
On Wednesday afternoon, I popped out of the Bowery station and saw a homeless guy standing on Delancey Street with a sign that read, “Tell me off for $2.” I asked the man, who had an odd straw-like cylinder pierced through his nose, if people actually take him on his offer. “You really wanna know?” […]
New Yorkers refer to the subway car that houses a particularly pungent person as the “bum car” so often that it has it’s own Urdan Dictionary entry. The somewhat insensitive phrase is used something like this, “oh no wait, don’t go in, that’s the bum car, let’s squeeze into this one.” According to Queens Crap, some riders in […]
The rise of homelessness in New York continued it’s seemingly unstoppable expansion this year, setting a new record of 58,913 people in shelters. The number of homeless people has been rising consistently over the last decade with a 73% increase during the Bloomberg administration. Mayor Bill De Blasio has promised a major overhaul of the system […]
When Pierre Merhej, the manager of the Radisson Hotel near JFK airport received a call from the city seeking 100 hotel rooms for a government group, he did not expect the guests to be homeless people seeking shelter. “When you say they have a government group, as hotel people we like government groups,” Merhej told DNAinfo. The hotel […]
On November 7, one straphanger riding the E train found himself in the same car as a naked man. That witness took a photo. It went viral and ended up on the cover of the New York Post. Remarkably, the Post found the man, clothed, in Madison Square Park: I like to be naked. It turns me […]
A real estate developer on the Upper West Side wants to turn an indoor public space into a private retail outlet, arguing that it’s full of homeless people right now. In 1985, Ashkenazy Acquisitions were given permission to build air rights at Bel-Canto condo after they agreed to dedicate a 1600-square-foot atrium for public use. Now […]
A park in Washington Heights has become a source of stress for the community as it has been slowly taken over by a group of homeless people. In 2001, Juan Pablo Duarte Square at the corner of St. Nicholas Avenue and 170th Street has been turned into community project by the Greenstreet program and the Washington Heights Gardening Crew. The former all-granite gathering spot […]
Although revamping signs for the homeless is not a novel idea, Kenji Nakayama and Christopher Hope’s ongoing project is effective. The Massachusetts-based artists remake these signs in their entirety, adding beautiful topography and catchy colors to the solicitations for charity. Paired with interviews and heart-wrenching quotes of life in the street, the project showcases the perks of a good presentation. […]
In East New York, there are nine homeless shelters. In the community district that encompasses Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Gowanus, Red Hook, and Cobble Hill, there is one. It’s no secret that low-income areas bear the brunt of shelters across the cities–hello, Bed-Stuy (25 shelters) and Brownsville (19)–but a group of East New Yorkers are […]
