Change Coming To NYC Shelters... And It's Not Good

Thanks to this past election cycle, "change" has become synonymous with "good." But that doesn't always hold true, especially when "change" means you might not have a place to sleep at night.

Tonight over 6,500 homeless men, women, and children will sleep in a homeless shelter in New York City. About 500 hundred more people, however, will sleep in a chair or on the floor in a city-run homeless drop-in center. These homeless drop-in centers, which typically provide meals and showers, have for years served as ad-hoc shelters.

Now, it's not that these people wouldn't prefer a bed. Many would. The problem is that there simply aren't enough shelter accommodations for the city's growing homeless population. In addition, many people prefer the drop-in centers to the institutionalized shelters.

But change is near for these drop-in centers... but in the form of major budget cuts. The New York Times' City Room Blog reports:

Saying that it is looking to revamp the system so that homeless men don't sleep in chairs anymore, the city wants to close the drop in centers at 8 p.m., starting in June 2009. In return, it will add to the number of faith-based and other easy-to-access beds. "What is most important is that at the end of the night, individuals are coming off the street into a bed," said Heather Janik, the spokeswoman for the Department of Homeless Services.

But advocates for the homeless and some of the men and women who run the faith-based beds argue that the city doesn't understand its audiences. "The city says it doesn't like people sleeping on chairs at the drop in centers. We don't particularly like that, either. But it is a better alternative than sending them back to the street, which is essentially what will happen, of they are told they must go to some kind of city facility," said Douglas Grace, the director of outreach ministry at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church.

In either case, the cut in the drop-in centers means fewer slots on freezing nights, said Patrick Markee, a senior policy analyst with the Coalition for the Homeless. The growth in safe-haven beds and faith-based beds are a good thing, he said, but it is not happening quickly enough to make up for the more than 500 slots that will be lost per night, especially as the economy is growing weak and more homeless could end up on the street.

Seems to me that the Department of Homeless Services has their timing all wrong. We know that homelessness is increasing in NYC (and in cities all over the country). Homeless service organizations are already struggling. Now is not the time to impose changes on a system that is already straining to meet demand.