The metro is running around the clock again - and this winter, the homeless are setting up their shelters there again.

Cold weather sets in in New York. Homeless city dwellers are taking refuge in the subway again in search of a warm and safe place to sleep. New York Daily News... This annual winter migration was cut short last year after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo shut down the metro overnight in an effort to drive out homeless people and clean up trains during the pandemic.

MTA resumed round-the-clock work of the metro in May. Some people sleeping on trains have stated that the reasons for their shelters in Metro the same as before the pandemic. Homeless shelters, they say, are unsafe and they don't trust social workers who will try to send them there.

Homeless people prefer subway cars to shelters

“I don’t go to shelters", - said Ray Unus, who spent several nights on the subway last week. He slept on trains on line E, the only metro line that runs entirely by land. It is a popular sleeping place for those without a roof over their heads.

“I was at the orphanage many years ago,” Unusu said. He added that sometimes you have to fight there.

Unusu said that he was arranging shelters for himself all over the city. He even slept outside last winter when he was banned from using the subway.

On the subject: Bradley Cooper was attacked with a knife in the subway of New York: the actor spoke about the 'crazy experience'

“I can't remember the last time I slept all night,” said 35-year-old Chavonne May. On the evening of December 2, she made her bed in the central terminal of Line E. She added that she eats from trash cans most of the time.

According to Josh Dean, executive director of the human rights group Human.nyc, it is difficult for people sleeping on trains to get or accept help. He clarified that part of the blame lies with social workers who do not know how to build trusting relationships with them, often deceive the expectations of the homeless or let them down.

In winter, homeless people sleep on the subway every night.

MTA security director Pat Warren said the agency is collecting "bundles of information" about homeless people on the subway and sharing it with city officials.

Warren added that the Department of Homeless Affairs needs to work with the NYPD. The collaboration will bring night brigades of social workers and officers back to the subway. This will make it possible to humanely and effectively fight this chronic disease of the city - the crowds of homeless people in the subway.

According to the Department's annual tally in January 2020, 1 people slept on the New York City subway every night during the winter.

Isaac McGinn, a spokesman for the department, said social services have improved since Mayor de Blasio took office in 2014. McGinn pointed to data that show that over 7 years, more than 145 people have been transferred from shelters to rental assistance or resettlement programs.

On the subject: Strange, but creative: a New Yorker has come up with a radical way to escape attacks on the subway

Karim Walker, 40, now works for Human.nyc and was previously homeless. He said that he often ignored social workers when he slept on the subway.

“I saw the shelters as an extension of the penitentiary system,” Walker said. "One would assume that the pandemic would force the homeless services industry to rethink its way of working, but that hasn't happened."

Walker now lives in an apartment in Brooklyn. He moved to this location in December 2020, and he waited two years for the city to approve his application for the Affordable Housing Program.

“I was very lucky to be able to win one of those gold tickets,” Walker said. "Now I'm just trying to get my life back on track."