Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There are lots of jobs and medical services nearby. If they need education there’s a lot of schools nearby. All NYC neighborhoods need to share some of the burden of housing the homeless.
Nyc benefits from accessible public transportation. Being 20 mins away from by train won’t disqualify them from jobs, medical facilities exist everywhere.
This is like asking Beverly Hills to house a homeless shelter. The rich pay their taxes to supply the homeless with benefits and shelter.
I would be pissed if I spent millions of dollars to have panhandlers waiting at my door. Being in rich area would also tempt them into panhandling rather than looking for a job.
Me. Ryu just pointed out Midtown is an excellent place to panhandle. Manhattan is a wonderful place to dumpster dive. All they have to do is clean up and there are a lot of nearby restaurants that need employees.
Right, because all of us who live or work in Midtown are just walking around handing out $20 bills. I NEVER give people money now. I think the last time I did was several years ago on Thanksgiving Day. It was freezing outside and I had just finished dinner at Bocca, and as I was walking near Union Square, there was a young guy perhaps my age sitting outside freezing.
He looked so depressed and embarrassed about his situation and it felt genuine. For whatever reason I felt guilty having just blown $100+ on dinner, wine and grappa, so I pulled out whatever money I had on me ($10??) and put it in his money jar. I want to say that it was the booze talking, but I can throw back quite a bit so looking back at it that wasn't it. Now however, you couldn't pay me to give anyone money. There's just too many panhandlers out here.
Not only that, but with so many women now clutching their purse when they see a man walking down the street, I'm generally offended at the idea of women asking me for money. Some woman tried to stop me the other day. Totally ignored her. It's like well am I going to rob you or do I have money? Make up your mind.
Nyc benefits from accessible public transportation. Being 20 mins away from by train won’t disqualify them from jobs, medical facilities exist everywhere.
This is like asking Beverly Hills to house a homeless shelter. The rich pay their taxes to supply the homeless with benefits and shelter.
I would be pissed if I spent millions of dollars to have panhandlers waiting at my door. Being in rich area would also tempt them into panhandling rather than looking for a job.
Beverly Hills should house a homeless shelter.
Everyone pays taxes that go to benefit people on welfare, so having services for homeless people should not be burdens for working class people or for people of color.
As long as it's cash under the table, that's true. But you can't get a job where taxes are taken out etc. if you don't have an address.
Wrong. You give them whatever address is on your NYS ID. The job has no power to check if you are still at that address or not. For that matter you can give them the shelter address. The restaurant will never know the difference.
Or lots of people simply rent boxes or PO Boxes and have mail delivered there. Welfare agencies to have places where their clients can have mail delivered.
Wrong. You give them whatever address is on your NYS ID. The job has no power to check if you are still at that address or not. For that matter you can give them the shelter address. The restaurant will never know the difference.
Or lots of people simply rent boxes or PO Boxes and have mail delivered there. Welfare agencies to have places where their clients can have mail delivered.
Misery should be spread around- why should poorer neighborhoods be forced to have multiple shelters in their communities so that 'richer' neighborhoods can be spared?
I see plenty of homeless people in wealthy areas, panhandling. There may not be an official shelter in these neighborhoods but plenty of homeless people sleep in the doorways of these neighborhoods at night.
There have to be more solutions to the homeless problem in NYC other than keep them in poor neighborhoods.
Misery should be spread around- why should poorer neighborhoods be forced to have multiple shelters in their communities so that 'richer' neighborhoods can be spared?
I see plenty of homeless people in wealthy areas, panhandling. There may not be an official shelter in these neighborhoods but plenty of homeless people sleep in the doorways of these neighborhoods at night.
There have to be more solutions to the homeless problem in NYC other than keep them in poor neighborhoods.
Let's face it. Most of the poorer neighborhoods have higher percentages of homeless people, so therefore, the shelters are placed where there is the greatest need, as they should be. My neighborhood doesn't have a shelter (nor should it) because it isn't a poor neighborhood with a high homeless population. Spreading around the misery is simply un-American. It's communism at its finest.
Everyone pays taxes that go to benefit people on welfare, so having services for homeless people should not be burdens for working class people or for people of color.
The land that a homeless shelter would take up in Beverly Hills, Manhattan, or anywhere rich would take away value that would further the social safety net. The taxes a luxury tower on the same site would easily pay for 20 homeless shelters. Is it worth taking away resources from the most vulnerable to appease one's sense of "fairness"?
Don't get me wrong, I don't believe in ghetto-ization, mixing incomes is best. But pragmatism must be the bedrock of social policy.
Normally I'd agree that shelters and low income housing should be spread out, look no further than the giant danger zones of failed housing projects in countries like France for an example of what happens when poverty is isolated into mini cities.
I'll agree in theory but in practice putting poverty alongside affluence and it becomes damn annoying. The reality of the NYC shelter system is they provide basic food and housing against inclement weather but the beneficiaries then get kicked out on the street by day to "find productive work" or something. Now we have dozens or hundreds of bums milling around the billion dollar row sleeping on sidewalks, begging for money, pissing in corners, and shouting incoherent nonsense.
This trend is everyday life around me, something I would have had second thoughts about if I really paid attention to my surroundings while apartment hunting. There is an state services/SS office in the base of my building plus a small public park next door. Every morning there are dozens of downtrodden individuals squatting around waiting for the park & office to open. On trash days these vagrants will tear open bags leaving the street littered in filth. Walking out at 5AM to start my commute I'll get the danger vibe as a dozen squatters sit and stare, sometimes one or two will shuffle behind me asking for change. I don't think paying $3,500 a month should qualify me for the lap of luxury but it shouldn't mean I worry for my safety everything I walk outside in the wee hours.
Honestly I'm not sure what to do, perhaps instead of shelters just provide one way bus tickets to sunny California. Part of the problem seems to be the old adage about feeding fish vs teaching to fish. NY provides the fish but doesn't put the effort into teaching the homeless how to get out of poverty and enforcement to cut them off if they become content just leeching off the system.
The truth is that vagrancy is as old as time itself. We here in NY have enjoyed a reprieve due to a large and proactive law enforcement crackdown on such things. The social and political zeitgeist has turned against such an approach in the last few years and this is the result. My approach would be to rent out cheap apartments in places like Hartford, CT or Oklahoma City, OK and work with social service agencies there to have people be housed somewhere more affordable.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I NEVER give people money now. I think the last time I did was several years ago on Thanksgiving Day. It was freezing outside and I had just finished dinner at Bocca, and as I was walking near Union Square, there was a young guy perhaps my age sitting outside freezing. 
