As New York Metropolis mourns the deaths of at the least 18 New Yorkers throughout this stretch of maximum chilly, a well-known argument has resurfaced: encampment sweeps that forcibly disperse individuals dwelling on the streets would have prevented these tragedies.
They wouldn’t have.
Whereas sweeps have the looks of decisive motion, they don’t clear up homelessness. The town’s personal information exhibits that final 12 months, solely about 3% of individuals encountered throughout encampment sweeps accepted a shelter mattress for even a single evening, and never one was linked to everlasting housing.
Encampment sweeps are described as “outreach” however are literally enforcement actions.
They dismantle tents, discard sleeping baggage and blankets, and scatter individuals from the delicate communities they depend on for security. In freezing temperatures, these disruptions put individuals at better threat for hypothermia and isolation.
To grasp why sweeps fail, we have to begin with an uncomfortable fact: most unsheltered New Yorkers already know they’ll go to shelter, and lots of have made knowledgeable choices to not.
For years, individuals dwelling on the streets informed us they really feel congregate shelters can lack privateness and adaptability, limiting their capacity to make selections. Many tried shelters and had a nasty expertise, so are reluctant to strive once more. For somebody already experiencing the trauma of homelessness, getting into shelter can really feel worse than staying outdoors.
That’s the reason repeatedly “providing shelter” — particularly beneath the specter of a sweep — doesn’t work. Individuals are not refusing assist; they’re refusing a system they really feel can’t meet their primary wants.
Clearing encampments doesn’t change that calculation. It solely makes survival tougher and hardens unsheltered people’ resolve in opposition to the system. These deaths should drive us to focus much less on punitive actions and extra on what saves lives.
When temperatures drop under 32 levels after darkish, town prompts enhanced Code Blue, which intensifies outreach and relaxes shelter guidelines to convey extra individuals indoors. Different emergency choices might embrace growing road outreach and dealing with the hospital system to forestall discharging individuals into life-threatening situations.
Coverage modifications, equivalent to increasing single-room Secure Havens, permitting {couples} and folks with pets to remain collectively, and utilizing resort rooms for individuals who gained’t enter congregate settings however will settle for personal, safe house, would assist convey reluctant individuals indoors.
Past emergency measures, actual pathways to everlasting choices should be prioritized.
Packages like Volunteers of America–Higher New York’s “Avenue to Residence” initiative present what’s potential once we meet individuals the place they’re.
As an alternative of requiring individuals to begin in shelter earlier than accessing everlasting housing, Avenue to Residence connects chronically unsheltered New Yorkers on to everlasting housing with helps and tackles the paperwork after. The result’s quicker placements, higher outcomes, and lives stabilized, not displaced.
Avenue to Residence works as a result of it acknowledges that everlasting housing shouldn’t be a reward, however the answer to homelessness. By March 2024, the Avenue to Residence pilot efficiently satisfied 116 individuals dwelling on the subway to enter everlasting housing, accounting for practically 30% of the 397 housing placements made via town’s end-of-line subway outreach.
Saving lives requires options grounded in proof, dignity, and humanity. Meaning investing in trust-building outreach, secure shelter, and direct pathways to everlasting housing that finish homelessness as an alternative of merely sweeping individuals quickly out of sight.
New York has a alternative. We are able to hold repeating insurance policies that fail, or we are able to decide to what we all know works. Lives rely on selecting the latter.
Ginsburg is president and CEO of Volunteers of America–Higher New York & McSilver Fellow at New York College.
