Statements Against the Subway Diversion Program
“The NYPD’s misguided new policy will only serve to further criminalize homeless New Yorkers through useless summonses. There is no criminal justice or policing solution to homelessness in New York City. People avoid services and shelters for a variety of legitimate reasons, the most important being the shortage of safe, welcoming shelter beds and permanent and supportive housing. Reducing the tragedy of people taking makeshift refuge in transit facilities and on the trains means giving them somewhere better to go – not using the police to chase them in circles.”
— Giselle Routhier, Coalition for the Homeless
“Having witnessed the Subway Diversion Program firsthand, we’ve seen the harm it does to homeless New Yorkers. The tactics NYPD is deploying to coerce people into ‘services,’ including but not limited to giving summonses and handcuffing people, are only driving homeless New Yorkers farther from the help they want, need, and are actively working to seek. Moreover, we see people being unjustly targeted through this program who are doing nothing wrong. At worst, they are taking up more than one seat, the same way most housed New Yorkers do everyday. The Mayor should be ashamed of himself for starting and expanding this program. It needs to end immediately.”
— Josh Dean, Human.nyc
“The Mayor’s new initiative is misguided and an absurdly backwards way of addressing the homelessness crisis in New York City. Our City’s homeless should have unfettered access to housing, shelters and resources, but not through a law enforcement pipeline that has historically criminalized people experiencing homelessness. We must acknowledge the plights facing this population and implement thoughtful policies and remedies, instead of issuing summonses in the first place.”
— Josh Goldfein, Legal Aid Society
“The Subway Diversion Program needlessly criminalizes our homeless neighbors, and is a waste of City resources. Rather than deploying police to harass people who are homeless in the subway, causing them further stress or coercing them into unwanted services, Mayor de Blasio should instead allocate the City’s resources to invest in building permanent affordable housing for homeless New Yorkers. The City must focus its efforts on expanding safe havens and building new low-income housing, rather than further criminalizing homelessness in the name of progress.”
-Amy Blumsack, Director of Organizing & Policy, Neighbors Together
“At Homeless Services United, a coalition of mission-driven nonprofit homeless service providers, we know that the best way to earn the trust of the homeless New Yorkers is to treat them with the dignity and respect they deserve. This means offering them access to safe havens and housing without judgment or any strings attached. The Mayor recently committed to increasing such resources to ensure outreach teams have the tools they need to get folks to come indoors; for that we are grateful. Despite this investment, the success of the outreach teams is being hindered by the Subway Diversion Program. This NYPD led initiative is actively undermining our efforts to get people to accept shelter and housing services by having officers threaten our clients with a summons or arrest prior to our teams to engaging them. This is creating a culture of fear and distrust and, in some cases, causing significant trauma. Such tactics will only further dissuade people from seeking services and must be stopped immediately; homelessness is not a crime and the NYPD should have no role in addressing it.”
-Catherine Trapani, Executive Director, Homeless Service United
"Criminalizing homelessness won't fix the subway. Transit needs and the homelessness crisis are separate issues that must be handled on their own terms. Homeless New Yorkers shouldn't be scapegoated or demonized for the ills of our transit system that result from a generation-long failure of political accountability. Aboveground and on the subway alike, homeless New Yorkers need homes and care, not arrests and jail."
- Danny Pearlstein, Policy and Communications Director at Riders Alliance
"Mayor De Blasio has continued the cruel tradition of NYC mayors who have met those living on the street with coercion and banishment: the 'subway diversion' program, concentrated surveillance through the Orwellian 'Street Homelessness Joint-Command Center', and the use of multi-agency displacements of those already on the street, are all examples of the fundamentally wrong-headed approached taken by this administration. Indeed, data recently released to us through a Freedom of Information request showed that there was a more than 44% increase in forced city displacements of those sleeping outdoors (better known as 'street sweeps') between 2017 and 2019. For those seeking refuge on the subways, the Mayor is using the heavy-hand of the NYPD and the courts to coerce people into shelter through the violent 'subway diversion' program. Contrary to Mayor De Blasio's rhetoric, it is not compassionate to displace people who sleep in public spaces by tasking the police with pulling them off subways, or tasking outreach workers, police and sanitation teams with pushing them from sidewalks and tossing their belongings. A compassionate response, rather than a politically expedient one, would mean providing housing at the point these individuals are engaged by outreach workers. Offering housing first is a proven solution to street homelessness. In contrast, offering ineffective referrals, court summons, and engagements with the police, only criminalizes the mere survival of those who find themselves without homes."
- Helen Strom, Urban Justice Center - Safety Net Project
“I’ve been in both the New York City prison system and the New York City shelter system, and I have been more afraid and at greater risk in the shelter system. In shelters, you are isolated in a dorm, with no security inside. Abuses, fights, and drugs are all common. Some homeless people like me feel safer in the subway than in shelters, because we are visible and can get help from other citizens if we are in harm’s way. The City Council just passed a bill to increase the number of set-asides for homeless New Yorkers in newly built low-income housing to 15%, but right now many of us work hard all day and still can’t afford an apartment. The Subway Diversion Program might make pedestrians feel safer because they can’t see us, but it actually puts real homeless New Yorkers at greater risk of harm from being in an unsafe shelter, exposed to the elements on the city streets, or turning to sex work and other underground economies just to have a bed for the night. We don’t need the subway diversion program. We need safe places to live.”
- Rona Sugar Love, Housing Works Advocacy Department