Having become a member of New York City's homeless population in 1983, and after doing considerable outreach directed at the homeless and attempting to vindicate their civil and human rights, I consider the annual "homeless count" no more than a public relations ploy designed to give the impression that the city is serious about combating the homeless situation that continues to be a blight upon our city.I happen to know homeless members of our city's legal underground economy who have never been counted. Furthermore, these persons are skeptical about ever being counted, as they feel that this count is almost always subverted and the results are employed contrary to their best interests.
The homeless community has genuine concerns about the manner in which this count will be used. Will it be used to criminalize and dehumanize the homeless population, as has been done in the past? Many homeless people in places like Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal report that the city uses the police to drive them out of public spaces in advance of the count to keep the numbers down.
Will the count be used to give the illusion that homelessness is being brought down, when in reality homeless people have just been displaced to avoid police contact? Or will these numbers be used to underscore the need for the implementation of a massive housing and jobs platform similar to the one employed during the New Deal era?
Will the city see the need and seize the opportunity to take control of some of our abandoned buildings and create an "urban homesteading" program that addresses long-term homelessness, instead of temporary housing subsidies that evaporate in five years and return those who have been temporarily housed to the ranks of the homeless?
I submit that it is due time for the executives of this city to stop playing games with people's lives and to truly embark upon a program that places people before profits and expends our tax dollars for the common good.
