He also said he believed Mr Adams’ plan to address subway safety would help “ease the climate of fear that affects many people who work in Manhattan and keeps some people from returning to the office.” to come.”
Mr. Adams’ presentation featured a lot of visuals. One was a photo featuring dozens of needles and syringes and other drug paraphernalia — part of a haul of more than 500 needles across four campgrounds collected under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, according to city officials.
He also showed a brochure that will be handed out to people on the street and on the subway with a tidy bed and a sparkling bathroom under the words: “Do you need a place to sleep tonight?”
While it’s difficult to accurately count the number of people living unprotected, the city’s most recent estimate, conducted in January 2021, was about 1,300 people sleeping on the subway and about 1,100 on the streets. Many proponents consider the estimate an undercount.
The vast majority of the city’s roughly 50,000 homeless people live in shelters – about 30,000 in family shelters and about 18,000 in singles shelters.
Transit officials have emphasized that the metro is not intended for public shelter and have said the number of people seeking refuge there is a concern for some riders and disrupts daily activities.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Janno Lieber, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subway system, praised the steps being taken to get homeless people off the train. But he also acknowledged that some who were referred to services would likely return to public transport.
“There will be some people who, God willing, will get out of the situation they are in in a permanent way, and if we’re realistic there will be others who won’t,” said Mr. love. “It’s just too early to say what those percentages are and whether we’re actually making a dent in this situation.”