A subway public safety strategy that aimed to help homeless people through non-violent force, help them get back on their feet, and as a result, would ensure more safety for all subway riders. Image by tania kelley.
During the scorching summer months, the subway not only connects New Yorkers throughout the boroughs but also offers a break from the sun, especially for unhoused people. Yet while homeless people are often at the center of subway public safety debates, the conditions that force many unhoused people into stations for prolonged periods are usually ignored.
Homeless people aren’t just statistics. They are human beings and members of our communities. City failures, particularly around the housing and shelter systems, provide unhoused people little support and funnel them into the subway.
Janvi, a 26-year-old Brooklyn resident spoke to us about her experience as a homeless person who has been in the shelter system for the past year. She has bounced around between multiple shelters, including East New York. She described inhumane treatment as commonplace in the shelter system, exasperating an already stressful situation for community members in need of support.
“They treat people without homes like prisoners,” Janvi said. “It’s very systematic and it shifts your psychology. I went through the system.”
She also explained that folks are not allowed to be in the shelter from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday. Where are unhoused community members expected to go? There are few places poorer community members can afford to go to escape extreme heat, cold, or rain conditions outside of the subway.
Mayor Eric Adams’ rhetoric has consistently emphasized violent crime on the subway. He has used fears of violent crime to justify increasing police presence. He’s appointed 1,200 NYPD overtime shifts daily, 750 National Guard troops, and a mandatory two NYPD officers on late-night trains throughout the subway system. Adams also pushed to implement cameras on every single train car, starting with 750 cameras per month. All of these efforts were brought by his Cops, Cameras, and Care (CCC) strategy. It’s unclear to us where the care factors into his plan.
Adams has spent even more taxpayer dollars on deploying police throughout the subway system, but has that spending paid off? While Adams has continued to talk about violence on the subway, there was historically little violent crime on the subway during the peak of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, per crime data compiled by StreetBlogs.
In 2022, Adams’ first year in office, there were 2,333 violent crimes in the subway system, notably lower than the 2,516 per year averaged from 2011-2019. In 2023, the first full year with Adams’ subway police expansion, there was no change in violent crimes (actually a small increase to 2,337). There was a slight decline from 2023 to 2024, with only 2,211 violent crimes recorded last year, but imagine how much larger an impact the millions of dollars invested in police expansion could have had if invested directly in supporting the community.
“We need staff that aren’t police in the subways to help with any personal needs,” Niko, a researcher at the Vera Institute of Justice, said in a conversation with us about safety.
There are some city programs designed to target houseless folks in the subway. However, Blanco, a member of subway security staff at the Franklin Avenue station in Crown Heights, told us that he’s seen those groups only helping certain groups, leaving others behind, suggesting the program is stretched too thin. More investment in support and less investment in police could change that.
New York City’s Democratic Mayoral nominee Zohran Mandani has campaigned on a new plan to help aid the homeless. He says, “Cops do not make unhoused people disappear. Services do.” Rather than the use of oppressive force like police officers, which don’t seem to help the problem, Zohran’s plan would deploy more social workers in hopes for an actual solution. Niko reiterated this idea in our conversation, “we need to have community workers in the subway systems to help with people’s needs, especially people with mental issues.” Janvi similarly said, “What is needed is kind social workers that can provide. Police, what they do, is subjugate, control, and oppress.”
Assuming Mamdani, who is largely expected to defeat Adams, Andrew Cuomo, and Curtis Sliwa in November’s Mayoral election, replaces Adams as Mayor, it will be important for him to follow through on his campaign platform to lessen the reliance on police in the subway system and use city resources to provide better support to the unhoused.
A subway public safety strategy that aimed to help homeless people through non-violent force, help them get back on their feet, and as a result, would ensure more safety for all subway riders. This shift in approach to public safety on the subway would be a welcome change.
It’s up to us to deliver the people’s needs. So our community has to step up to provide the help and resources to create a world where no one is houseless in Crown Heights. If you are interested in helping community members, organizations like the Crown Heights Tenants Union and Crown Heights Mutual Aid are good places to start. We can’t ignore these problems. It’s up to us.
“Let’s look out for each other,” Janvi implored. “A lot of people walk away, don’t help, and they don’t care. But someone’s in a vulnerable situation. They’re in a predicament. We can’t walk away. That’s not okay. I think we need to shift that value system in society.”
This article was originally published in the first edition of The People’s Torch. You can pick up a print copy for free at Another World, a community organizing space in Crown Heights, Brooklyn (629 Nostrand Ave). You can support Another World and The People’s Torch by joining their Patreon.
The post Shelters Underground: How a Failing System Forces Unhoused People Into the Subway appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
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