AIT has spent millions on a program to expel the homeless from the subway, but there are only more

The program cost no less than 2,6 million dollars, but did not bring any result. In addition, with its introduction, the situation seems to have only worsened. This publication writes New York Post.

The work of the MTA in sending homeless people spending the night on the subway was too expensive, but minimally effective. This conclusion was made by the MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny. The results of the investigation are presented in a new report by the agency.

Complaints about vagabonds sleeping in the New York subway rose sharply after the agency last year updated its annual $ 5 million expulsion program. This program aims to expel the homeless from the subway and send them to shelters. But in the end, train delays associated with the homeless continued, found in the office of the Inspector General of MTA (Office of Inspector General, OIG).

On the subject: Homeless on the streets of New York: the extent and causes of the problem

The "very expensive" and "minimally effective" program cost at least $ 2,6 million (overtime costs). At the same time, teams of 10 people, consisting of transport police and social workers from the contracting organization Bowery Residents Committee (BRC), took an average of only three homeless people per night from each station. At the same time, dozens of homeless people remained on the trains, ”the message says.

Despite the current MTA program, the number of train delays associated with the homeless continued to grow in the first half of 2019. Homeless incidents caused about 100 delays per month in January and February.

Complaints from metro passengers about the homeless, meanwhile, rose sharply in August after several months of decline. In February 2020, the latest month for which data are available, MTA received 550 complaints of homeless people - almost double the number in February 2019.

Teams began trying to oust homeless people from the subway system last summer after state governor Andrew Cuomo called the “rogue” presence of vagrants in the New York subway. However, these efforts crashed for two reasons: the MTA simply cannot cope with the number of homeless people; the situation in the country has led to the growth of homeless people in New York.

On the subject: Coronavirus protection: New York homeless will be settled in empty hotels

The IG Office launched an investigation after auditors from the Office of Comptroller Tom DiNapoli accused BRC employees of spending only 26% of their time in person with homeless people - half the time they are contractually required to do. worth $ 5 million.

The MTA Inspector General personally went last year to check the situation at the Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station. After that, she sent a letter to the agency stating that she “saw people looking for food in trash cans a few steps from the doors of the BRC office, as well as homeless people lying on the ground right next to the BRC office.”

MTA, meanwhile, was not able to monitor the program and did not even have a clear understanding of what would happen to the homeless if they did get help from BRC.

In May, the program was actually suspended after the metro stopped working nightly due to the coronavirus pandemic. The agency also introduced new rules prohibiting vagrancy at stations.

IG has recommended that the MTA scrutinize whether it is worth “spending millions annually” on this scheme when the metro is fully operational - and if so, the agency needs to provide better oversight, the report says.

The MTA accepted IG's recommendations and promised to make changes. “We agree that in-depth discussion with partner agencies is necessary before establishing implementation programs to clarify roles, define performance indicators, set clear targets and assign responsibility for collecting and reporting accurate data on the impact of any program,” wrote Sarah Feinberg, acting president of New York City Transit.