I was stunned when I heard the couple who occupied our room before us spent almost a decade here. They stayed just a little over nine years at Park View, a family shelter overlooking the Harlem Meer.
How terrifying and discouraging such a thought was. Was this our fate, I wondered. I couldn’t imagine my husband and I, newly married and in our 20s, spending the next 10 years of our lives here. At that moment, I would have rather walked right into the Meer. I felt like my life was over … and it hadn’t even started yet.
Of course, you could argue 10 years in a homeless shelter is better than 10 years sleeping in your car. Or in front of the Old Navy on Fredrick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem. And yet, I’ve repeatedly heard homeless people prefer their cars, tents – even the sidewalk – to a prison oftentimes disguised as a homeless shelter. And then I wonder, why any of this must be debated. Why can’t we simply house those without homes?
Although obvious, clearly it still needs to be said. Housing is the only solution to ending homelessness and restoring dignity, respect and autonomy to the ever-growing homeless population. If ending homelessness is our true goal, then we need housing. And we need it a lot quicker than a decade from now. As a matter of fact, we needed it more than a decade ago.
Homelessness Steadily on the Rise
In fiscal year 2018, an all-time record 133,284 unique individuals spent at least one night in a New York City DHS shelter. That’s an increase of 61 percent since fiscal year 2002 when the figure was 82,808. New York City’s homeless crisis has been steadily on the rise for a very long time.
Coalition for the Homeless Policy Director Giselle Routhier said, “For families, single adults who have fallen into homelessness for a variety of reasons, we need to make sure that those resources are there and available to them. We also need to make sure that the housing is there so that they’re not stuck in shelters for years on years.”
It is no surprise that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Turning the Tide on Homelessness” initiative has failed miserably.
Here is some perspective on how alarming New York City’s homeless crisis is: the number of people staying in shelters each night is big enough to be New York’s ninth-largest city.
In this article, author Caroline Spivack comments on the annual report released Tuesday, April 30, 2019. She said, “the city’s homeless population will balloon unless swift steps are taken to create a surge of new low-income apartments for disenfranchised New Yorkers.” Spivack continues, “Homeless advocates offered a fierce critique of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ‘Turning the Tide on Homelessness’ initiative, a five-year plan that seeks to shutter all privately-owned city shelter units—often referred to as cluster sites—and replace them with 90 new shelters, as embarrassingly unambitious with a goal of reducing the shelter population by only 2,500 between 2017 and 2022.”
The Solution Is Affordable Housing, Not More Shelters
New York City’s homeless crisis has only been exacerbated by the city’s lack of affordable housing. And without a doubt, it will continue to grow until we prioritize housing as a solution to homelessness. Creating more shelters, along with notably poor conditions, will not and cannot end homelessness.
Right now, the path out of out a New York City shelter is not only narrow, but extremely slow. While spending almost a decade in a single shelter is not necessarily common, two to three years definitely is. And it is just as common for formerly homeless individuals to leave the shelter system and eventually come back. All while the homeless population grows steadily due to the city’s lack of affordable housing alone.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s band aid attempts toward ending homelessness are simply not working. From issuing housing vouchers, which most landlords don’t even want and easily won’t take, to the lack of skilled social workers needed to combat a multitude of needs, we are far from where we need to be in putting a real dent in New York City’s homeless crisis.
Yes – I am writing this from the comfort of my own apartment, a year after being housed.
I understand my current state of housing had little to do with and had little impact by the processes that took place while I resided at El Camino, in Queens, and then Park View, in Manhattan. Witnessing firsthand everything discussed above, I met the landlords who do not take the vouchers. The unskilled social worker with little suggestions, advice, or resources was assigned to help me move forward. I met those who preferred the streets because “at least there’s some dignity there”. I had the neighbor who “celebrated” their three-year anniversary at Park View, with cake, mind you. And I listened to the stories of the couple, who slept in our room before us. In fact, I learned much about their lives. I learned about their relationships with those who came before us and will still be there a year, or three, from now.
And I ask everyone – Mayor Bill de Blasio included – if you think we are doing justice by the tens of thousands of homeless individuals, families, and children who will grow up and raise their families and spend a portion of their lives within these shelters – who will take these experiences with them once they leave, however long it takes, and hopefully, not come back. Or if they deserve better. If they deserve housing. Because, yes, they do.
