City Lines Up More Shelter For Homeless

Police sweeps of homeless people from more visible places in Manhattan have tended to disperse some of those living on the street to other boroughs, advocates for the homeless say. And police crackdowns on ''quality of life offenses'' such as drinking in public, trespassing, obstructing the sidewalk and panhandling -- like the one recently announced by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani -- also tend to send homeless people out of sight, to the jail on Rikers Island among other places.

An analysis of the city's computerized shelter records in recent years shows that about 25,000 people use the city's single-adult shelters in a given year; about half of these leave after a week and do not come back. Another third return periodically for stays of about 80 days, while a minority are the long-termers who dominate the public image of the homeless.

A study issued this week by the Bronx borough president, Fernando Ferrer, who is running for mayor next year, estimates that the so-called street-bound homeless number more than 10,000 people citywide. The study recommended a more coordinated approach among city agencies that deal with the homeless, including the police.

In another pending lawsuit with a potential impact on the homeless shelter system, a state judge ruled last summer that continuing mental health care must be arranged for mentally ill inmates before they are released from Rikers Island and other jails. That order has been stayed pending a city appeal, but a settlement is under negotiation. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said it could include referring such inmates to specialized shelters, instead of dropping them in Queens Plaza at night, as is done now.

Advocates had mixed feelings on the city's addition of temporary beds.

''It's certainly a welcome change to have the focus be getting a roof over people's heads, but it's unfortunate that the city continues to view single-adult homelessness as something that can be dealt with mainly with emergency shelter beds instead of permanent housing and additional mental health services,'' said Steven Banks, the Legal Aid Society lawyer who represents the Coalition for the Homeless. ''The bottom line is, a shelter is not a home.''


Courtesy of the NY Times
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