A new report is shedding light on conditions inside New York City\u2019s shelters, where maintenance issues are described as a major problem and some homeless New Yorkers say they would rather live on the streets.<\/p>\n
The report from Volunteers of America-Greater New York examines conditions at some city-owned shelters, including large dorm rooms with little to no privacy and damage from plumbing inspections inside family bedrooms.<\/p>\n
The organization says the issues point to a need for a broader effort to make the city\u2019s shelter system more dignified for the roughly 100,000 New Yorkers who rely on it each night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are often living in conditions that are really difficult and really traumatic, and it takes what’s already a really hard time in their life and makes it much harder,\u201d said Jeff Ginsburg, CEO of Volunteers of America-Greater New York.<\/p>\n
New York City became the first and only American city to guarantee a shelter bed for anyone in need in 1981.<\/p>\n
But as the city expanded the shelter system to meet rising demand, many large publicly owned buildings, including armories, jails and hotels, were converted into shelters.<\/p>\n
Now, Volunteers of America-Greater New York estimates that about 4,500 New Yorkers experiencing homelessness avoid the shelter system each night and instead remain unsheltered. The organization says some people fear violence, theft and unclean conditions inside shelters.<\/p>\n
The group says many of the buildings need significant renovations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the report, we talk about what’s called trauma-informed spaces, and it’s really not as complicated as it sounds. What it really means is that when you’re in a really tough moment in your life, you want to have a space you can talk privately with a social worker, that you can have the light and the conditions that you can get sleep or medical care that you need,\u201d Ginsburg said.<\/p>\n
Volunteers of America-Greater New York showed NY1 the newly opened YP Senior Residence in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx. The facility features modern apartments, shared spaces and a backyard patio.<\/p>\n
The organization says the residence offers an example of what city shelters could look like with more investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a perfect example of what can be done. There’s great light in this space, there’s shared spaces for people to talk and for families to be together, and this helps people fundamentally change their lives,\u201d Ginsburg said.<\/p>\n
The group is also calling on the city to create a dedicated renovation and preservation fund for major repairs and redesigns at city-owned shelters.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we talk about in the report, this problem didn’t happen overnight, and actually we’re partnering now effectively more now with this administration to try to fix these problems,\u201d Ginsburg said.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the city Department of Social Services told NY1 the Adams administration inherited an aging shelter system and said the Mamdani administration is committed to improving conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are committed to creating a system that is responsive to the unique needs of those we serve, and we have taken meaningful action to transform the system as a whole,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
DSS also told NY1 the Mamdani administration is investing in opening new, high-quality shelters across the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new report is shedding light on conditions inside New York City\u2019s shelters, where maintenance issues are described…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1010597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,23600,13565,7448,7065,405,403,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,55432,80,52,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5284],"class_list":["post-1010596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-app-housing","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-housing","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-olivia-leach","tag-politics","tag-top-stories","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vod"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117121784445539696","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1010597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}