Doctors, Healthcare Providers & Advocates to Mayor Adams: "Stop Criminalizing Poverty"

BRONX, NY (07/25/2022) (readMedia)-- As New York City enters its sixth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers from across the city, including Dr. Oni Blackstock from Health Justice, providers from St Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction, the Urban Justice Center, and Housing Works joined together to demand the city stop clearing homeless encampments, provide proper isolation for the next COVID-19 wave, and commit to expanding permanently affordable housing. The Mayor, by destroying encampments, is going against CDC guidelines which strictly state that if individual housing options are not available, the recommendation is to allow people who are living unsheltered or in encampments to remain where they are.

WATCH the press conference here.

While the city touts plans to address homelessness, over 60,000 New Yorkers are still languishing in shelters, and thousands more are living on the streets. Earlier this month, three individuals sleeping on the streets were stabbed. Instead of providing single rooms for homeless New Yorkers, the Adams administration is closing one of the few remaining sites offering private rooms for high-risk individuals in the shelter system, and has threatened to curtail access to these reasonable accommodations, while stepping up subway and street sweeps. Just a few weeks ago, the NYPD cleared encampments in Chinatown without the Department of Social Services (DSS) even on site to offer services, forcing homeless New Yorkers to move to less safe locations, rather than getting them on a pathway to housing.

Over 90 doctors also sent a letter to Mayor Adams, Governor Hochul and DSS Commissioner Jenkins demanding they stop the sweeps of encampments, release adequate data on people getting housed, and provide proper isolation options for those with COVID. Full letter here.

"Increased policing and outreach without a dedicated expansion of resources is not only a retread of familiar, unsuccessful practices but will also put increasing numbers of the City's vulnerable at risk. A true solution to homelessness requires dedicated expansion of services for supportive housing and legislative action to both keep people housed and create pathways into safe, affordable housing. We join with our partners across the city this Homeless Rights Month to urge both the city and state administrations to take such action if they are truly committed to the mission of ending homelessness," they write in the letter.

BACKGROUND

Homeless Rights Month began one year ago with a call from directly impacted advocates to stop the city's assaults on homeless rights. This July, as little has changed, advocates and directly impacted New Yorkers are once again joining together for a month of action, declaring July Homeless Rights Month in New York City. Their demands are:

• Stopping Street and Subway Sweeps
  • Stop criminalizing homelessness; get cops out of outreach
  • End abusive street sweeps that dispose of belongings and destroy trust
  • Follow CDC guidelines to allow people to shelter in place on the street or in subways unless single rooms can be offered
  • Offer single rooms and vouchers directly to folks on the street
• Fast-Tracking Housing
  • Broaden voucher eligibility and get vouchers into people's hands more quickly, whether in shelters or on the street
  • Eliminate voucher utility allowance and "rent reasonableness" standard
  • Truly invest in source-of-income enforcement
  • Fast-track HONDA developments and make substantial budget investments in permanent housing
• Privacy + Dignity in Shelters
  • Invest in single-room Safe Haven and stabilization beds; Work to phase out congregate shelters
  • Don't end reasonable accommodations protecting high-risk NYers
  • Provide on-site medical and mental healthcare in all city shelters

Protect against undue administrative transfers that disrupt people's lives, health, and education