In Making Crowded Homeless Shelters Safer, Some View the Issue With a Sense of Security

On Monday, outside the Bedford-Atlantic shelter, Peter Engler, 23, said that current security personnel were overwhelmed. ''You can bring drugs in here, you can bring weapons in here, anything you want,'' Mr. Engler said. ''No one does anything. The N.Y.P.D., that's what I'd like to see in here.''

Dawn Witter, 45, who has stayed several times at Brooklyn Women's Shelter since 1989, said that while she has seen improvements over the years, she is still frightened. ''You got to have friends, you got to be careful,'' Ms. Witter said. ''You don't know where these people are coming from. Sometimes people come in from prison and they walk around bullying people. You have to watch your back.''

Steven Banks, the Legal Aid lawyer for the Coalition for the Homeless, said that emergency cots provided by the city during winter months leave the homeless especially vulnerable, without lockers to secure their possessions. Mr. Banks said he would meet with city officials today to discuss winter accommodations. He planned to request the statistics for tracking crime in shelters.


Courtesy of the NY Times
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