18 THE QUEENS COURIER • NOVEMBER 21, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
City expands its ‘Outreach’ to homeless people living on the streets
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com
@robbpoz
With thousands of New Yorkers living
on the streets or in the subways every day,
the city is expanding its eff orts to provide
them with the help they need.
Th e de Blasio administration announced
Th ursday the launch of Outreach NYC,
which will mobilize 18,000 employees from
fi ve city agencies to report unsheltered
homeless individuals and connect them to
various assistance programs.
Th e Fire Department will play the biggest
role, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio, as
15,000 fi refi ghters, paramedics and EMTs
are being trained for the observe and report
program. Th e other workers hail from the
city’s Departments of Sanitation, Parks,
Buildings and Health and Mental Hygiene.
Th ese trained employees will report
unsheltered homeless individuals via the
311 app to a Joint Command Center operated
Photo via Getty Images
MTA executives eye job cuts, hear complaints on 500-cop strategy
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Th e MTA is considering a “transformation
plan” that would include a major
restructuring from the ground up, including
the loss of thousands of administrative
jobs and the hiring of 500 new police offi -
cers to patrol the subway.
“Th e fi nancial plan … refl ects our commitment
to transformation and reform,
and reinvesting in operations so that the
increases in ridership and on-time performance
continue,” MTA chair Pat Foye
said. “But as in any budget, it includes –
requires — hard choices. Th is one in particular
was contingent on achieving signifi
cant savings, and I’ll note that signifi -
cant risks remain.”
Rebecca Bailin — an advocate for
the Riders Alliance, a group staunchly
opposed to the the offi cer hiring plan that
Governor Andrew Cuomo authorized
earlier this year — said funds to bring
in the new police offi cers should instead
be used to improve bus and subway service
instead and stated that enforcement
would come down heavy on black, brown
and immigrant commuters.
“Gov. Andrew Cuomo manufactured
this crisis,” she said. “What we know from
y’all – and other folks – is that crime is
down on the subway. Why are we hiring
500 cops in what we see as an attempt to
harass immigrant New Yorkers?”
Another speaker said the only thing that
scared her more than actual criminals in
the subway was 500 “bored cops.”
Th e overall cost of the 500 offi cers will
cost the MTA $249 million.
Board members Andrew Albert and
Sarah Feinberg argued that there had
been recent incidents of assault in the subways,
justifying an increased police presence.
Th e MTA reported a 39 percent
increase in worker assaults, 50 percent
increase in hate crimes and 10 percent
increase in robberies. Albert and Foye
claimed the cops would also prevent terror
attacks on the transit system.
MTA Chief Financial Offi cer Robert
Foran said that the new offi cers, aimed
at targeting fare-beaters, will wind up
saving the agency $200 million between
2019 and 2023 in regained fare revenue.
Th e MTA is also receiving $40 million
in reimbursements from the offi ce of
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance for
the fare-beating crackdown.
Board member David Jones called for
a deep dive on fare evasion before voting
to deploy the 500 police offi cers, saying
that two-thirds of incidents happen on
buses and that the deployment looks bad
to the public.
Th e MTA’s dramatic restructuring, a task
which will be led by Chief Transformation
Offi cer Anthony McCord, also cuts back
on employee overhead and administrative
redundancy, however, the agency says
it still plans to see a $212 million defi cit in
2022, which would increase to $426 million
in 2023, according to Foran.
“Th e transformation implementation is
critical,” CFO Foran said. “Otherwise we
are going have unmanageable defi cits in
the future.”
Board member Susan Metzger suggested
increasing bonding to close further
gaps in the operating budget as opposed
to cutting back on overhead.
“We’ve been cutting cost for many years
… but we’re much closer to the bone now,”
Metzger said, unenthusiastic about the
fi nancial forecast.
Th e transformation plan will be voted
on by the board at its December meeting.
by the NYPD and the Department of
Homeless Services. Center staff will then
assess each case and provide appropriate
resources, while also tracking broader
homeless trends across the city and
deploying relief through the Department
of Social Services.
Much of these relief resources will be
delivered through HOME-STAT teams
of clinicians, psychiatrists, social workers
and other experts. Most of these teams,
according to the city, regularly engage
with unsheltered residents and know
them by name.
De Blasio added that the city will hire
another 110 employees to focus solely on
the outreach eff ort. Th e Outreach NYC
overall goal is to provide as many unsheltered
homeless individuals with a path off
the streets and into “transitional and permanent
settings.”
“We cannot attempt to address this
issue in a vacuum,” de Blasio said of
Outreach NYC. “It’s time we all wear one
uniform. Outreach NYC is our all-handson
deck approach to bring even more
people in off the streets.”
Th e outreach program aims to address
the most challenging cases of unsheltered
homeless, including mental health and
substance abuse.
Since April 2016, the city has helped
more than 2,200 individuals transition
into a life away from street homelessness.
Th e city has also, in that span of time,
increased its investment in street homeless
programs from $45 million in 2013 to
$140 million today.
De Blasio cautioned, however, that the
services off ered by outreach programs are
voluntary; unsheltered individuals cannot
be involuntarily taken off the streets
unless they’re deemed to pose a danger to
themselves or others.
Photo by Mark Hallum
MTA Chair Pat Foye at last week's board meeting.
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