Signal 2: Homelessness is a choice?
- “Can you sit up, please? Sir, sit up? Do you need to go to the hospital, sir?”
- “I’m good, I’m good.” [1]
This was just one example of an ordinary conversation between a homeless man and the police last winter in NYC. A new winter is on its way, and nobody knows whether it will be severe as the last one. All we know is that warm subways are waiting for their loyal residents.
Has any action been taken? Yes of course. From hiring 200 people to pretend they’re homeless to opening dozens of new shelters and training the police on how to approach a homeless person to get him/her into shelters, multiple efforts have been made. [2]
A satisfactory result has not been obtained yet. Unfortunately, the problem has many facades. People are complaining of unsanitary conditions and afraid of mentally-ill cases. Homeless people are complaining of unsafe and crowded shelters from where most of them get out in a short time. In addition, riding and sleeping in subways is not a crime rather a choice which makes the situation more complicated.
What’s the next step? Probably not opening a new shelter. Why not try more analytical approaches? For example, analyzing the root cause could answer the question of whether some suitable jobs exist for some homeless people. The main problem could be highly correlated with economic cycles and temporary policies. Let’s think about it first.
Sources
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/14/nyregion/new-york-subways-homeless-police.html
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/nyregion/new-york-city-hope-homeless-count-decoys.html
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/08/nyregion/homeless-cold-subways-shelter.html
