ICYMI: Why We Should Welcome - Not Fear - Homeless Neighbors

NEW YORK, NY (04/04/2022) (readMedia)-- Corinne Low, co-founder of Open Hearts Initiative and an economics professor at the Wharton School, has a new op-ed in the Daily News about why community members should welcome - not fear - proposed transitional housing sites in their neighborhoods. Speaking from experience welcoming temporary hotel shelters to her own neighborhood and as a Chinese American woman, Low makes data driven arguments in favor of welcoming homeless neighbors in our own backyards.

Read the full text of the op-ed below.

Getting past fear to fight homelessness

Last Thursday in Chinatown, community members rallied against a site that would offer desperately needed single-room, low-barrier transitional housing and services to homeless community members. It was the latest event in a sustained campaign against the shelters the city has planned in Lower Manhattan.

Listening to Chinatown residents speak, I understood their pain and fear. I am also Chinese-American, and over the last year, I've discussed the terrifying attacks against Asian-Americans with my friends, many of whom are fellow Asian moms who have been hesitant to meet for drinks after dark, or to have elder family members travel alone. But I also know that shutting out these services, which are designed to help homeless New Yorkers who are already in the community, often sleeping in the streets at great risk themselves, is not the answer to that fear. Our safety is intertwined, and when each of us have our needs met, all of us are safer.

In 2020, I was in the same position that many in Lower Manhattan are in right now when the city moved homeless New Yorkers to several hotels in my neighborhood, the Upper West Side. I soon got to know my new neighbors and learned their stories. Many were parents like me. Some had jobs despite the instability of their housing situation. Even as some neighbors stoked divisions, our community came together to supplement the services that the hotels offered to residents, bringing on-site Alcoholics Anonymous groups, fitness classes, writing workshops and employment programs. And the connections built between neighbors - regardless of housing status - made our community a safer and kinder place.

My new neighbors thrived in this setting. More than 75% of residents of shelter provider Project Renewal's hotel shelters reported improved physical and mental health, and 72% said that their drug and alcohol use had declined. It's not difficult to see why. The hotel shelters offered these New Yorkers the privacy and dignity that can be difficult to find in the city's congregate shelters.

The transitional housing sites being planned in Chinatown will take a similar approach to the one that made the hotels a success, offering private or semi-private rooms for residents.

This model works: While individuals living on the streets and subways frequently cite the lack of privacy in congregate shelters as a reason they hesitate to enter the shelter system, they are significantly more likely to accept placement in Safe Havens and stabilization beds like those being planned for Chinatown - low-barrier models with more privacy and fewer dehumanizing restrictions. Indeed, data gathered by the Department of Homeless Services between May 5, 2020, and January 31, 2022, found that only 33% of individuals offered transport to congregate shelters accepted placement there, while 65% accepted placement at a single-room stabilization bed site. In short: The sites planned in Chinatown are exactly the kind of transitional housing that we need more of, along with large investments in permanent supportive and affordable housing.

These sites are specifically designed to meet the needs of those experiencing homelessness who already live in the community, including Asian-Americans who have traditionally been underserved by the city's shelter system. They will offer safe places for individuals living on the street to take a shower, use the bathroom, store their belongings and hopefully stay for the night. And, in doing so, they offer a bridge to mental health and drug treatment resources.

Too often, we have heard people point to "crime" and "safety" as a reason to not make investments in housing and services for homeless New Yorkers. Yet the evidence shows that investing in housing, mental health care, jobs and communities is exactly how we prevent crime.

That need for safety extends to homeless New Yorkers themselves, who are more likely to be victims than perpetrators of crimes. One of the sites in Chinatown is an answer to violence, proposed after the fatal beatings in 2019 of four homeless New Yorkers, one of whom was an 83-year-old Asian-American man named Chuen Kwok. Recently, five homeless individuals were shot in a string of attacks across New York and D.C. According to data from city agencies, 22 homeless New Yorkers were killed in the last year; since 2008, this number has consistently grown.

The best way to protect homeless New Yorkers is by offering them safe, private and dignified places to go - not chasing them from place to place and destroying their belongings, as the mayor recently announced his administration will do as they carry out plans to clear homeless encampments.

If we want to make our communities safer, we have to put an end to the decades of disinvestment in housing and mental health care that has led us to this current crisis. We need more communities to join us in saying yes to welcoming evidence-backed, service-supported temporary and permanent housing in their backyards.

Low is the co-founder and executive director of the Open Hearts Initiative, and an economics professor at the Wharton School.