Counting Homeless Like Sheep – HopeCount NYC
This awful event will happen on Monday:
It happens EVERY year….It’s Called #Hopeless Government Event. People go up to strangers who are living on the street, speak to them and count them.They did it last year and the year before too….but we just see more homeless on our street and hiding in the parks/highway overpasses. Sometimes they are camouflaged so well, even my husband is surprised when one of them pops up and asks for a cigarette.
The volunteers don’t know what happens with the results, but the politicians do. They aren’t blind. No one is willing to say, “Hey this isn’t working – let’s do something else.” Because “the something else” would mean housing the homeless AND that’s a l0t more work than just counting them.
Certain areas are better covered than others, so even by looking at the training centers map above, we can see that there are a lot of areas that won’t be covered. Churches in other areas have responded, but not in Brooklyn. After you house them, then you can count them….that’s alright once their basic needs are being met.
A city worker takes the real statistics, twists them and shares them with us to make us believe there are less homeless on the street…Last year, the reported showed there was 6% less homeless in NYC… which we all know is n0t true. How do we know? Because we used to know all the names of the people who were on the streets here – now there are so many we don’t know them all. Some of the people we have spoken are depressed and drunk, but most have more serious mental issues and need help.
More homeless come to Bay Ridge because they want to be safe. Even if you are very conservative and don’t want to use city funds to help the homeless, you know you don’t want them to freeze on the streets either.
The volunteers all get sweatshirts with the logo….oh yes the logo – don’t get me started on those sweatshirts! Whoever thought making a logo and printing sweatshirts to count homeless people in NYC was a good idea, shouldn’t be in that position. Bring the people some bottled water and sandwiches. I have never met a homeless person who has refused a slice of pizza and a can of soda.
Meanwhile our community owns this government building on 86th Street and we can’t put the homeless people in there when it’s freezing cold out. This building has been empty for a few years. NYC politicians would rather count the homeless living on the cold streets than tell them to come to this building.
Hugs,
marlene
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