42 The Courier sun • november 19, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com New documentary examines homelessness crisis in NYC Tens of thousands of people in New York City have nowhere to call home, and a new NET-TV documentary airing next week examines who the homeless are and how to get them the help they need. The 90-minute film “Shelter in the City” aims to provide viewers with a better understanding of the depths of the homelessness crisis in New York, where about slightly fewer than 60,000 people are currently sleeping in public shelters. A third of them, according to producer, Terence Donnellan, have some form of mental illness. “We tend to think of most homeless as single men living on the streets, but that’s not true,” said Donnellan, who works for DeSales Media, noting that single men comprise about 10-15 percent of the homeless population. “One-third of the homeless are children, but you don’t see them on the streets.” Homelessness experts as well as family members of homeless people and some homeless people themselves are interviewed throughout the documentary. One of several trailers on NET-TV’s website features Ken Murray Sr., a Daily News photographer, as he meets up with his son, Ken Jr., who is living on New York City streets. According to the senior Murray, the junior Murray has schizophrenia and cannot live in his suburban hometown because “the cops out there treat mental illness as a crime.” One formerly homeless person, veteran Zenith Harper, noted that she once turned to the city’s shelter system, but suggested that they were unfit for residence: “The shelter systems are horrible. I wouldn’t advise anyone to be living there.” Donnellan started the film project in the winter, saying he was looking to do a film on a subject “affecting a lot of us.” He wanted to examine why so many people in “the wealthiest city in the world” were without a home. In interviewing experts on homelessness, formerly homeless persons and people currently without a home, he learned many aspects about the crisis that are largely unacknowledged by mainstream media and local elected officials. “A lot of politicians and the press say, ‘Let’s get the homeless off the street,’ without realizing the homeless want to be off the street as well,” he said. “They don’t want to be there. A lot of people think the homeless are just drug addicts and drunks. Certainly, there are some who are on drugs or drinking, but that’s a small percentage of it.” In examining the issue among experts, Donnellan noted, one potential solution that they raised was “supportive housing,” a concept in which homeless persons are provided stable, long-term shelter and access to various social services-- including mental health programs-- to help them lead normal lives once again, and so they can contribute to society, which most of them want to do. They don’t want to be burdens. They want to contribute just like the rest of us. “It often costs more to keep a person on the street than to put them in supportive housing,” he said, pointing out the great expense involved in police efforts to combat homelessness and emergency health services offered to homeless people in need. “It’s pennywise and dollar-foolish to keep these people on the streets.” Donnellan hopes that “Shelter in the City” viewers will come away with greater empathy for homeless persons in New York, especially after seeing the experience of homeless persons from their point of view. “Shelter in the City” will air on NET-TV, the official television station of the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens, on Tuesday, Nov. 24, at 9 p.m., with encore presentations at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving night, Nov. 26, and on Saturday, Nov. 29, at 6 p.m. Visit http://netny.tv/shows/ shelter-city to view the trailers and learn more about the film.
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