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.
When people are hungry they are reduced to survival mode.....it is hard to think and plan rationally when you are homeless, starving.
Oh please, there are no starving homeless in NYC. They all receive free food at anytime of day.
The only underweight homeless people are the ones who have serious addiction problems.
Oh please, there are no starving homeless in NYC. They all receive free food at anytime of day.
The only underweight homeless people are the ones who have serious addiction problems.
Agreed... There are so many handouts in this city that it isn't even funny.
Couldn't take the homeless and other issues on the Broadway line any longer.
To get down to FiDi/Tribeca now take the Q and transfer at 14th for the R and get off at City Hall. Yes, it is a bit of walk getting over to west side, but blocks are short and easily manageable. On the plus side don't have to deal with the funk and annoyance of countless homeless on 1,2,3 trains.
Social worker here, we barely get paid anything so of course we ride the trains! I think everyone first starting out wants to help the homeless on the train, then you learn after the first or second time you try to give them information instead of money. You get tired of getting screamed at when you're not being paid to do so.
In any case, NY is a right to shelter state so a homeless person can't get kicked out of a shelter for anything short of seriously harming multiple people or setting fires. Even then, it's a temporary suspension and they have the right to use drop-in centers to overnight. Most shelters provide 3 meals and clients can still receive reduced SNAP benefits. Mind you, the meals are public-school lunch quality, but no one "starves" unless they're choosing to do so. There were also multiple soup kitchens within walking distance of all of the shelters where I've provided services.
If the person is obviously disabled, they are entitled to either SSD or SSI benefits which is generally around $7-800/month (and if the person is in shelter, they're not paying rent and should not be paying much in food expenses). It can be a pain in the ass to get them, I agree, but that means the person should be somewhere with a social worker working on their case instead of on the train yelling for change. I've literally seen a client begging for money on the train when I had spent half the day looking for them to schedule their SSI exam appointment.
Further, housing support, especially for the mentally ill homeless is unfortunately based on time in shelter. If the person is not actively in shelter and is choosing to sleep on the train, etc. They're only hurting their chances of receiving supportive housing in the future. It's sort of a callous-sounding opinion, but giving train walkers money is encouraging them to stay out of shelter and is keeping them out of supportive housing.
But also to answer your question, yes, BRC handles MTA outreach. You might see them in orange shirts from time to time, but the ones I know are usually in regular clothes. They carry a caseload of "chronic street homeless" clients that they're tasked to track down and regularly offer them services. If you see someone on a subway several times a week, I can almost guarantee you they have a BRC outreach worker who is offering them services on a bi-weekly basis.
More than often than you think, I saw a supervisor the other day riding on the bus. She was talking to her coworkers about a case while filling a case report on the bus.
Social worker here, we barely get paid anything so of course we ride the trains! I think everyone first starting out wants to help the homeless on the train, then you learn after the first or second time you try to give them information instead of money. You get tired of getting screamed at when you're not being paid to do so.
In any case, NY is a right to shelter state so a homeless person can't get kicked out of a shelter for anything short of seriously harming multiple people or setting fires. Even then, it's a temporary suspension and they have the right to use drop-in centers to overnight. Most shelters provide 3 meals and clients can still receive reduced SNAP benefits. Mind you, the meals are public-school lunch quality, but no one "starves" unless they're choosing to do so. There were also multiple soup kitchens within walking distance of all of the shelters where I've provided services.
If the person is obviously disabled, they are entitled to either SSD or SSI benefits which is generally around $7-800/month (and if the person is in shelter, they're not paying rent and should not be paying much in food expenses). It can be a pain in the ass to get them, I agree, but that means the person should be somewhere with a social worker working on their case instead of on the train yelling for change. I've literally seen a client begging for money on the train when I had spent half the day looking for them to schedule their SSI exam appointment.
Further, housing support, especially for the mentally ill homeless is unfortunately based on time in shelter. If the person is not actively in shelter and is choosing to sleep on the train, etc. They're only hurting their chances of receiving supportive housing in the future. It's sort of a callous-sounding opinion, but giving train walkers money is encouraging them to stay out of shelter and is keeping them out of supportive housing.
But also to answer your question, yes, BRC handles MTA outreach. You might see them in orange shirts from time to time, but the ones I know are usually in regular clothes. They carry a caseload of "chronic street homeless" clients that they're tasked to track down and regularly offer them services. If you see someone on a subway several times a week, I can almost guarantee you they have a BRC outreach worker who is offering them services on a bi-weekly basis.
Great post, we rarely get an absolutely definitive answer to a thread question from a specialized expert. So there it is in a nutshell.
I'd go one step further and state that most of the beggars on the train are professional panhandlers. A person can easily collect $2 per train car in the span of 3 minutes. That's $40 an hour "work", or a $83,000 per year "career" if the person chooses to apply themselves. Of course it depends on the quality of their hussle and the rake goes WAY through the roof around the Christmas holidays. I would not be surprised to find out there are 6-figure subway beggars riding the MTA
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.
