Yes, I am the girl who wrote about a shelter in New Rochelle in 2014
People tend to think of homelessness in New York as a city issue. Westchester county, New York City’s deeply confused cousin, has a crisis of its own. Our rents are extremely high, but the situation is made worse by incompetence, corruption, and cuts in funding.
In New York City, the shelter system is entered by walking into an intake shelter. Here, social services (DSS) must refer you either to it’s intake shelter or directly to a provider, depending largely on whim. If it refuses you, or you are ineligible (such as undocumented immigrants), you must stay at a drop-in; a facility open only from late at night to as early as five in the morning, sometimes unsanitary, and without services. One or two have (inadequate) day programs funded by other sources, most do not.
Often, the county asks clients to stay at these places for 10–30 days as proof that they are homeless before they will place them. This is done through a letter from the facility although the county pays around $100,000 or more anually for a computer system used to enter the data of homeless people. HUD said in 2012 that this data could be used as proof of homelessness if the county fixed problems such as providers not actually using it. Guess they haven’t yet. Some drop-ins make getting letters difficult.
The county says that most other eligible drop-in clients don’t want help and refuse to be placed in the shelter system, that they allow clients to stay in the warming centers anyways out of kindness. This is a lie. As these surveys prove, many people are turned away by social services, and many are unaware that the real shelters even exist or how you get to them.
Out of 32 drop-in respondents, 12 were refused entry into the shelter system (one may have been ineligible). Some were given no reason. One just had open heart surgery and was refused services anyway. He had a welfare case years ago, but had found a job, and worked until his heart problems; the county said they need him to spend at least thirty days at a drop-in or on the streets before they can “reopen” his case, 2 people were totally unaware that they could go to social services, 5 clients went there but were never spoken to about shelter placement.
5 clients did refuse placement. One works, and the intake shelter is over two hours away in an isolated complex near the county jail. Another was told he must participate in a work program, though he can’t walk properly. One was put in the intake shelter, but he was kicked out for refusing to hand over his entire paycheck to the county. 8 clients were refused placement, but given ($590) room vouchers. They cannot however, find rooms on their own, or for that price.
The survey shows a common denominator among most of those turned away; lack of income. It is my allegation (and an open secret among the homeless) that these people are rejected to save Westchester money.
When someone is put into our shelter system, all their income is taken by the county, except for a $45 monthly allowance. New York City takes only thirty percent. This makes it very hard for even people in the shelters to get out of the system, with some staying as long as three years.
The state only pays 29% of our shelter costs, so when it takes in someone without money, Westchester has to actually spend it’s own money on it’s poor. And our county executive prides himself on a low budget.
It is no secret that drop-ins are cheaper. This contract states that one of their benefits is that they cost $38 dollars per person, while a shelter costs $105–148 per night. This contract states the same but with different numbers.
Two clients in the survey, state that they were told they would not be placed because the county would not spend $4,000 on them.
Minutes of the Mount Vernon local continuum of care (which has it’s own issues) from 2009 read “DSS is denying claims baselessly- i.e. reasons are provided but they are untrue/ baseless/ confused……” I believe they are speaking about temporary assistance (the $590), but it shows the general trend.
Because of this, most of the county’s drop-ins are over capacity by more than 30–60 people. For example Oasis in New Rochelle has about 80 people or more, in what is supposed to be a 27 bed facility.
The problem has been made worse by the 2013 closure of the Mount Vernon drop-in due to community protests.
Even if the county relents, there may be nowhere for people to go. This year, it cut over half of it’s county funded transitional housing beds for singles, as well as emergency housing for families.
The county just closed a shelter for employable single adult men, the Vaughn Glanton Residence, stating that there is not enough demand for it’s services. They turned it into a family shelter into which they put some of the families they took out of emergency housing.
In 2014 the county closed it’s only shelter for medically frail adults, claiming that it was not needed because 68 of the beds in its system were vacant. Small comfort for the drop-in clients it won’t place in them.
Next article: how housing programs have sat empty while the homeless sit on the streets.
Please read the companion articles here and here!
The number of articles in this survey will constantly be changing as I get more!