Healthcare Workers and Lawmakers with Shams DaBaron, Homeless Rights Activists: Stop the Deadly Transfers!

BRONX, NY (08/03/2021) (readMedia)-- On Wednesday, Rep. Ritchie Torres, Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, Dr. Oni Blackstock, NYSNA, and more will gather in the Bronx to demand the city stop treating homeless New Yorkers as if their lives are expendable. After a brief pause, the city is planning to resume transfers of homeless New Yorkers from temporary hotel shelters to dangerous, overcrowded congregate shelters. This will cost lives - it is a public health crisis. The Delta variant is surging through the city with Covid cases up 433% since the end of June, both the Mayor and Governor are strongly urging people to wear masks indoors, and the city is instating a vaccine mandate for indoor activities. Nine congregate shelter residents are already in isolation after being exposed to COVID.

Covid-19 made clear the health inequities in communities of color. Especially in the Bronx, ground zero for the pandemic, we saw the worst health statistics in the city among the majority Black and brown population. It is critical that the Mayor and Governor listen to public health professionals and frontline workers by acting to prevent another deadly COVID outbreak now.

Lawmakers, activists, and public health experts will gather at Fordham Plaza with these demands:

• The Mayor must stop the transfers to congregate shelters
• FEMA must continue funding hotel shelters
• The Governor must pursue a pathway to housing by signing the State FHEPS bill
• Congress must pass Rep. Torres's bill to expand Section 8