Homeless Shelter in FiDi Tabulates Successes and Challenges
The homeless shelter at 105 Washington Street recently marked its first anniversary, which occasioned a review by the Quality of Life Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1), at its October meeting. Brooke Vanegas, the deputy chief program officer for the Center for Urban Community Services, the nonprofit that operates the shelter, said, “we’re a ‘safe haven’ shelter, operating 24/7. We work with 84 clients – 56 males and 26 females.”
“We have intensive case management, clinical services, and security 24/7,” she continued. “The program is designed to help clients with whatever they need to move into permanent housing. We assist with on-site psychiatry and medication monitoring, we help clients with getting benefits, with housing packets, preparing for housing interviews, and then help them to be successful once they get placed into housing. A lot goes into helping clients reconnect with family, employment, and off-site care, as well as therapy.”
Ms. Vanegas added, “we’ve had challenges in the form of violations to the good neighbor policy,” an agreement about behavior in the community that shelter clients review on admission. “It’s about not being disruptive, being loud, loitering, or using any illicit substances,” she said.
Pat Moore, chair of CB1’s Quality of Life Committee, asked, “what happens if they don’t follow the good neighbor policy?”
“It starts with counseling,” Ms. Vanegas said. “If the problem is repeated or escalating, if things become too egregious or problematic, we create incident reports to have a case record.” If necessary, the City’s Department of Homeless Services will transfer the client.
“There’s a lot of reinforcement to make sure that people, when they are sitting in public places, do it in a way that’s not disruptive and not illegal or causing concern to anyone else,” she said.
CB1 chair Tammy Meltzer brought up the issue of a homeless man sleeping on the West Street median, which gave rise to safety concerns.
Lt. Patryk Kaczmarczyk, of the NYPD’s First Precinct, recalled responding to this situation. “We were telling him to leave. He was being disorderly by staying in the middle of the street and pan handling. We ended up running his name and arresting him, because he had outstanding warrants. They were all more than five years old, so when he went to court, he was released.”
Lt. Kaczmarczyk added, “we can’t always force somebody to go. We can’t move people if they don’t want services. If there’s an encampment, like a tent or a cardboard box, we can tell them to move.”
Reviewing the overall performance of the 105 Washington Street shelter during the past 12 months, Ms. Vanegas noted that 197 clients have completed the intake process. Of these, about 100 left the program, while 13 have been placed in permanent housing, and 19 have been approved for supportive housing, along with 28 who have been approved for housing vouchers or similar subsidies. She added that more than two-third of the clients served by the facility were formerly living outdoors in Manhattan south of 14th Street.