Question 1 - Tell us about YOUR New York
Times Square and the Theater District have been home to me since the 1980s. At that time, the district’s economy was dominated by adult entertainment People my age who were being lured into this fast money enterprise - as investors, workers, and prostitutes.
One aspect of Times Square life that remains as true now as it was 30 years ago is that, like with Hollywood and Nashville, young people flock to it, prepared or not.
Since moving back to the District, I've encountered several of them. They tell me their stories and I ask if there is anyone we could call to help out. And if they need help reaching out to someone, I can put them in touch with Miracle Messages, a nonprofit that helps people connect with estranged friends or relatives.
Other than that there's not much more I can do. If I know where there are free meals I'll tell them; the same with day jobs, and where to find safe showers and restrooms.
I usually lose track of them within a month. Then I’m left to wonder if they’ve been hospitalized? arrested? sheltered? trafficked? lost?
That's the most disconcerting part. Not knowing how or where they end up.
That's why I was so relieved and elated when I saw that a couple businesses installed a kiosk in The Square offering free coffee and phone charging.
It’s a safe place for them to relax, network ‘recharge’.
If you recall, that took place right about the time I submitted Part 1. The holidays came and went, COVID spiked a few more times and things have still not simmered down to 'normal'.
So it's too early to tell if any of these businesses actually want to provide assistance to persons in distress or if they are just performing token gestures so people can see their ‘halos’.
When I am asked tp speak publicly about homelessness, I often open by saying ‘I know a lot of people who are homeless, and even more who are making a good living from it.
That’s true.
Question 2 - Why does New York, in particular, need this right now?
The only thing we can be sure of in the wake of the pandemic is that many more people will be living in distress – not just homeless. Many of them, unjustly, will be the same people who carried us through the pandemic—the essential workers that cooked and delivered our food took care of us in hospitals and kept the city safe and clean.
Federal aid for rent relief as well as other forms of promised assistance will as usual get tied up in endless bureaucratic paperwork causing people to become even more tressed and distressed.
This is why I am proposing that we elaborate and enhance the kiosk model into Pre-Crisis Resource Centers (PRCs.)
This will help out in 3 major ways: First it will create a place for people to go to when they feel that a personal problem is escalating into a crisis. Secondly, it will allow social workers to engage with people who are there to avoid a crisis, not have one. (This would also make it a great place for social workers to train, rather than on subway platforms, busy streets, and hectic domestic situations.) And lastly, it will greatly relieve the pressures on hospital emergency rooms. This is especially important if, as some scientists predict, covid type viruses become common in the future.
Question 3 - If your work is successful, how will New York be a better place?
Please, if you will, close your eyes and imagine your children – no, more realistically, your grandchildren -- never having to see an elderly person sleeping on a piece of plastic or cardboard. Or stumbling upon a teenager with a needle stuck in their arm and a blank dope gaze on their face.
Have you ever had to try to explain to a young person why we have so much homelessness in this country?
You shouldn’t have to.
We are not Barbarians -- so let's stop acting like ones.