CITY REACHES A HOMELESS HIGH by Robert Pozarycki New York City’s latest winter storm played havoc on 7 train riders Monday, Feb. 2, when ice accumulation on the third rail brought Queens’ busiest train line to a halt. Shelter System Bursts As Crisis Continues Approximately 60,352 people—more than one-third of whom were children—resided in city shelters in November 2014, the coalition reported. That figure is about 20,000 more than the number tallied two years ago— and about double the homeless shelter population recorded in 2001. Homelessness in the city, the coalition charged, reached its highest levels “since the Great Depression,” with more than 80 percent of the homeless shelter population comprised of families with children. Thousands more homeless persons are believed to live on the street or in other public spaces such as the subway system; an accurate number cannot be provided. Many of them, the coalition indicated, are suffering from serious mental and/or physical health conditions. A lack of affordable housing in New York City serves as the “primary cause” of the homeless crisis, the coalition charged. In surveys provided to shelter residents, respondents said their situations were triggered by a variety of factors including eviction, severe overcrowding, domestic violence, loss of employment and hazardous housing conditions. Homelessness also disproportionately affects persons of color, the coalition noted, as 57 percent of homeless shelter residents are black and 31 percent are Hispanic. Moreover, four out of five unsheltered homeless persons are men, according to the report. The homeless population continues to grow despite the efforts of the de Blasio administration to tackle the problem. Since last year, the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) opened many emergency homeless shelters across the city, including at the former Pan American Hotel in Elmhurst. Later that year, the DHS and TIMES, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015 • 10 by Robert Pozarycki The city set an ominous record for homelessness last November, as its homeless shelter population eclipsed 60,000, according to a Coalition for the Homeless report issued last week. -SEE HOMELESS ON PG. 22- Icing Woes Spark 7 Train Shutdown Slows West Queens Amid Storm The entire line between Times Square-42nd Street and Flushing- Main Street was shut down after 9 a.m. Monday after trains stalled on the tracks. The city’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) also stated a track fire caused by an umbrella that fell to the tracks in Manhattan contributed to the shutdown. Prior to the storm’s arrival, the MTA stated it would run maintenance trains on each outdoor line overnight to prevent ice and snow buildups. It took the MTA three hours to push the stalled trains to the -SEE ICE ON PG. 22- Study Shows It Costs The City More $ To Remove Less Snow Spends $1.8 Mil. Per Inch Every Storm by Anthony Giudice With the city spared from a colossal snow storm last week, City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer and his office analyzed the per-inch cost of snow removal over the last 12 years, and found some shocking results. Stringer’s research shows that in times of light snowfall and heavy snowfall the cost of removing ice and snow increase dramatically compared to times of average snowfall. “Snow removal costs the city millions of dollars annually, but it turns out that average winters give us the best bang for our buck on that front,” Stringer said. “The total amount that the city pays to plow our streets grows with each storm, but counterintuitively, it’s a lot more expensive per inch when we get a little, or a lot, of snow in a season. Consider the old adage of $1 million per inch debunked.” The city budgets annually for snow removal based on the average amount of snowfall over the previous five years. Stringer’s office looked at the snowfall amounts and money spent for the last 12 years, from fiscal year (FY) 2003 to FY 2014. They analyzed ice and snow removal using two components: personal services, such as employee overtime and hourly wages for temporary workers; and other than personal services, such as payments to snow-removal contractors, the cost of materials, equipment, fuel, maintenance and training. The annual costs for snow and ice removal range from $25.4 million to $130.7 million, with an average cost of $55.3 million for FY 2003-FY 2014, the -SEE SNOW ON PG. 24- Lewd & Crude On LIC Subway by Anthony Giudice The NYPD is asking for the public’s assistance in identifying the suspect wanted for public lewdness on a train in Long Island City. On Friday, Jan. 23 at 5:40 p.m. injuries. the victim, a 47-year-old female, Anyone with information in was aboard the R train in the regards to this incident is asked to vicinity of Queensboro Plaza, call the NYPD’s Crime Stopper when the suspect—described as a Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS, or Hispanic male, standing 5’5”-tall texting 274637 (CRIMES) then and weighing 125 lbs.—put his enter TIP577, or log on to the hands down his pants and started Crime Stoppers Website at touching himself while sitting on www.nypdcrimestoppers.com. the train. All calls will be kept There were no reported confidential. ©Times Newsweekly - 2015-
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