MANHATTAN — Homeless New Yorkers in the subway system are facing a new choice.
If approached by the NYPD, they can choose a summons or services.
It’s part of the Subway Diversion Program that the city launched over the summer. Police approach the homeless violating the transit system’s code of conduct rules. An infraction, like sleeping on multiple seats on a subway car, allows the NYPD to give the homeless person the choice.
It happened to Karim Walker back in August.
“The police picked me up at a stop. Asked me if I needed services. Fool as I was, I did say yes. They put me in handcuffs. Wrote me a ticket,” Walker said.
Walker said he thinks shelters are unsafe. He chose to go with outreach workers so his summons would be dismissed. But he soon returned to the subway.
And now the New York City Council is taking a look at the Subway Diversion Program.
“We cannot have a law enforcement lens approach when it comes to addressing homelessness,” Bronx Council member Vanessa Gibson said.
Early NYPD numbers show less than half of the homeless chose to dismiss the summons and seek services.
“It is apparent this program has not helped the city’s un-sheltered individuals in the transit system move into shelter and services,” General Welfare Committee Chairman Stephen Levin said.
The NYPD’s Chief of Transit testified at City Hall Tuesday.
“Our officers must strike a delicate balance between taking enforcement action and offering services, or sometimes doing both,” Chief Edward Delatorre said.
The Department of Homeless Services said it’s progress.
“An individual who may not be ready to accept services today may be ready to make the transition tomorrow and through enhancements like the Subway Diversion Project, we remain focused on increasing pathways off the street for these New Yorkers,” First Deputy Commissioner Molly Park said.
An anonymous letter from a group of NYPD Transit officers was read at the City Council hearing as well. In the letter the officers wrote, “The Diversion Program has become an obsession.”
“We have lost focus on overall crime and especially counter-terrorism, leaving citizens more vulnerable. Instead, we are unjustly criminalizing individuals who have done nothing worse than the average person in the subway all because they have no home. It isn’t helping anyone.”
