The City’s Homeless Problem

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Wagner College sits atop Grymes Hill and commands one of the most spectacular views in the city – perhaps even, dare I say it, in the country. The vista from this Staten Island private college includes the Statue of Liberty, the Manhattan skyline, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, and, to its far right, waters that lead to the ocean. At dusk, the lights gleaming on the water are a photographer’s dream. Oh, and on the front lawn there’s now a shantytown.


Not a real one, of course. The 40 students who’ve erected the ad hoc homeless community are making a point about the nation’s housing crisis. Their grassroots effort that is certainly attracting attention. The pseudo-homeless denizens of the shantytown are members of a recently formed chapter of Habitat for Humanity, the nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry that builds homes for the needy.


These earnest students are pretending to be homeless to make a point that truly needs to be addressed, especially here. New York City is no. 1 when it comes to homeless families. No, that title does not belong to San Francisco, which has been so overrun by militant homeless people harassing pedestrians and local businesses that many have come to believe New York is in better control of the situation.


The president of Homes for the Homeless, Ralph Nunez, says the homeless we are accustomed to seeing on the streets and in shantytowns are the single homeless – usually individuals that have substance abuse problems or mental disorders.


In New York City, though, there are more than 1,500 families, many including small children, that come into the system every week. These are the invisible homeless that Mr. Nunez and his nonprofit, which has been in existence for nearly 20 years, are committed to helping.


Mr. Nunez is the only advocate for the homeless who is willing to attack the root cause of this situation: the breakdown of the traditional family. Most families that end up in shelters include single, teenage mothers or women who are victims of violence. These are the people who, after welfare reform, have fallen through the safety net.


Mr. Nunez says they need education, counseling, and the availability of day care while undergoing job training. Simply getting them into subsidized government housing is not the answer, he says, because the elements that created their homelessness are recreated in such housing, and the cycle continues.


Homes for the Homeless was founded by Leonard Stern in 1985 to provide clean, safe, and humane transitional housing for families. This organization presently has five shelters – entire buildings with tight security and strict guidelines. The shelters are de facto communities where residents can pursue their GED and get day care and counseling in one place until they are ready for permanent housing. This is a great program, and one has to wonder why we are still paying a fortune in tax dollars to house families in seedy motels when that money should be going toward expanding the shelters that work. The city should be donating properties seized in tax liens to Homes for the Homeless. Its Web site is www.homesforthehomeless.com.


One question naturally arises: After these families are ready, where do they go? If what is happening in my borough is happening in the other four, then New York City is rapidly becoming a city of the very rich and the lucky poor. The lower- and upper-middle working class and the unsavvy poor are being chased out of town.


What used to be the seedy part of Staten Island is no longer affordable. Every square inch of my community is being converted into expensive townhouses. What was once the most affordable borough is now in the same price league as the others. Staten Island used to be the forgotten island, but once Wall Streeters discovered that St. George and Stapleton is just a short ferry ride commute to inexpensive coops and rentals, gentrification began and developers swooped in to capitalize on the housing boom.


The city initiated a program that would give qualified first-time homebuyers up to $10,000 as a down payment. That would have been a godsend five years ago, but it’s inadequate when the lowest available house is $300,000. Working families can’t qualify for the mortgages. If you’re rich, housing is no problem. If you’re poor, there are resources to help. If you are middle class with a family, you’re probably thinking of leaving New York City … or camping out on Grymes Hill.


acolon@nysun.com


The New York Sun

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