Thread by @thebl0w

Mayor de Blasio is forcing homeless New Yorkers back to congregated shelters Monday. He says ppl need the services shelters provide & he is lying. There are no services. This is a shelter on Ward’s island. NYC pays $3500 - $4000 per person a month to sleep in a room with 30 ppl.

The idea that shelters are a safe place for homeless people is a myth perpetuated by non profits that run & benefit from them. They can get away with this because only staff & residents can go in them. These photos are from a brave resident who is a member of @VOCALNewYork.

Here’s a bed at a Ward’s Island shelter in a prison-style dormitory, 20-40 people per room, standard for many shelters. Mental breakdowns & open drug use are common, problematic for ppl trying to stay sober & unsafe for everyone. This is what de Blasio is forcing people back to.

Here’s the only personal storage space in a homeless shelter. Forcing homeless people to live like this, in crowded dorms w/ Delta variant on the rise & only 14% of the shelter population vaccinated is unacceptable. We need to #StopTheTransfers & save homeless New Yorkers’ lives.

When you see homeless New Yorkers speaking out to media, refusing to go to back to congregated shelters, & sometimes choosing to sleep on the street instead (while de Blasio arrests them & destroys their belongings) it’s because the shelter system is endangering their lives.

Homeless New Yorkers demand that @NYCMayor : #PauseTheTransfers, #StopTheSweeps of homeless encampments, & implement #Intro146Now so people can go straight from #HotelsToHousing. This is a moral and public health crisis. Lives will be lost if de Blasio doesn’t stop the transfers