Quote:
All of this occurred at 2:40 a.m. Nov. 29 inside a Brooklyn shelter that's 100% funded by city taxpayers. Yet none of these security guards or their supervisor actually work for the city.
Instead they work for a private firm, FJC Security of Long Island. The city did not pick FJC or any of the other private firms currently providing security at shelters across the city. Instead, the city leaves that job up to nonprofit groups it hires to run most of the city's shelters.
Since 2014 when Mayor de Blasio arrived at City Hall, the city Department of Homeless Services has awarded more than $3.1 billion in contracts to these nonprofit groups. As of January there were 89 of these contracts.
At that time, an analysis of the shelter system by state Controller Thomas DiNapoli estimated that the nonprofits running city-funded shelters were spending $78.2 million on security. That included security equipment and staff employed by the nonprofits, but most of it — $46.1 million — went directly to the for-profit security firms.
Article:
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/private-security-shelters-facing-21-lawsuits-violence-article-1.4014201
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I spent years reporting security guards at the Pine Street Inn to the Pine Street Inn's administration before the administration finally started having guards who don't harass the guests at the women's side of the shelter. Even though the guards that we have now at the women's side aren't threatening, they are not female; the administration isn't concerned that the women's shelter ought to have female guards.
When you read this article, think about everything that the Pine Street Inn doesn't have, including:
-Substance abuse recovery support for the female guests. A mat on the floor when someone is wasted is not substance abuse recovery support.
-Support for victims of domestic and sexual violence
-Support for the severely mentally ill
-Rehabilitation and transitional services for female guests with criminal records
-A human rights officer who is accessible to all of the guests. There is a human rights officer, but he only provides support to guests who are part of the MATCH program, therefore most of the guests can't ask him for help. There is no female human rights officer.
-Educational requirements for the staff who spend the most time with the guests. The only official education requirement for the regular staff is a high school degree. Some of the staff who work there are not fluent in English. This is an issue, not least because of all of the elderly and ill people who live at the shelter and who can have medical emergencies at all hours.
-Effective staff training for conflict prevention and resolution. This is a sad situation for everyone, both for guests who are mistreated by those of the staff who like to bully and for staff who start their employment wanting to be empathetic and helpful and who end up either frustrated by their lack of professional skill, bullied by other staff into being bullies, saying nothing while guests are mistreated, or leaving.
-Wheelchair-accessible doors. The women's side of the shelter does not have one wheelchair-accessible door; not for the entrances, exits, or restrooms. There is almost nothing at the women's shelter that is built to be wheelchair-accessible, despite the shelter having the largest percentage of people with canes, walkers and wheelchairs of any population which I have ever witnessed, including in hospitals. Every time that a disabled person has to use a door at the Pine Street Inn, she has to open it from her wheelchair or while using her walker or cane, or someone has to open it for her.
-Enough lockers for everyone who sleeps there not to have to carry everything with her every day. There is always a waiting list for the lockers, and the lockers which the shelter does have are all dilapidated and are not cleaned.
The Pine Street Inn is decades old and a lot of things need to be repaired. Everything needs to be painted. There are bathroom doors that don't close, toilets and sinks that break down. The elevator stops working every few days, so that the people who can't climb stairs either can't leave the building, if it stops working when they're in a dorm, or have to sleep on cots on the lobby, if it stops working before they're in the dorms. There's a leak in the ceiling of one of the bathrooms on the third floor; water drips from the ceiling onto the floor. Sometimes the heat stops working.
This is the season when some of the rest of the world remembers that there are homeless people. Groups of kind-hearted people troop in week after week, to serve food from the line in the kitchen alcove. The alcove is separated from the lobby of the women's shelter by an automated metal door which is loudly raised and lowered before and after mealtimes, in a procedure that probably has some resemblance to how livestock are fed in a pen.
I have almost never heard of a homeless person being rude to any of the holiday volunteers, despite the fact that we don't need more candy, we don't need more socks, we don't need more soap, and we definitely don't need more hats that they knit. I received 2 of those hats in the first week of December; I would have received 3 of them if I'd attended another dinner at which they were distributed. Most of us don't wear them; most human beings wouldn't wear them. We try to congenially foist them on to each other, after the volunteers leave.
If you wouldn't wear it, and you wouldn't want to have to carry it around with you all day, every day, whatever it is, please don't gift it to a homeless person.
Also, although I have never personally known about corporate donations of items such as boots and coats being stolen by staff at any homeless shelter, other homeless guests have told me that they do.
