By J. Zamgba Browne
Chief Correspondent
An estimated 1,500 unsheltered homeless New Yorkers so far were helped off the streets and into safer, more stable environment, including transitional programs and permanent housing, according to City Hall.
The success of the program was due in part to the persistent and dedicated efforts of the HOME-STAT outreach teams working across the five boroughs, City Hall announced.
Authorities said collaboration between the following agencies should be credited. The Department of Homeless Services, the New York Police Department, agency partners, and not-for-profit social service providers.
City Hall has so far placed a total of 1,480 New Yorkers experiencing street homelessness into permanent housing or transitional settings, all of whom remain off the streets.
“It can take dozens or more contracts to convince homeless New Yorkers to come in off the streets and into permanent housing,” Mayor de Blasio stated in a press statement.
“This new milestone proves that our strategy is working and that the growing partnership between the NYPD and our homeless outreach workers is producing more contacts and more transitions from streets and subways into shelter for homeless New Yorkers,” he added.
Steven Banks, Commissioner, Department of Social Services said that since launching HOME-STAT, the most comprehensive outreach program in the country, “we have dramatically increased our investment in dedicated street homeless programs,”
He added that the efforts include doubling the number of outreach staff working around the clock in all five boroughs, as well as tripling the number of specialized beds supporting street homeless New Yorkers.
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