There is a completely inhumane health disaster happening right before our eyes in NYC. #COVID19 (1/) thecity.nyc/2020/05/homele…
This photo was taken *this week* at the large shelter next door to @BellevueHosp. These are men who had been removed from the subway during its unprecedented nighttime closure. (2/) 
Of course, some might count these men as “lucky” — they came from one of the 29 subway stations (out of approximately 500 in NYC) where there are homeless outreach teams and not just NYPD telling people to move along. (3/)
“It’s inhumane,” said Derek Jackson, director of the law enforcement division for Teamsters Local 237, which represents Department of Homeless Services peace officers.” Wow. (4/)
Per The City “They are, to put it charitably, on top of one another.” This is clearly against @CDCgov & @nycHealthy social distancing guidance. @NYCMayor & @NYCDHS is putting people at enormous risk of contracting #COVID19 (5/)
Already over 900 homeless New Yorkers (that we know of) have contracted coronavirus and over 75 have died. (6/)
“Figures obtained by THE CITY show that from May 3 to May 10, overlapping the first week of the overnight transit closures, just 124 out of 5,239 people encountered by police and outreach workers... stayed in a shelter for at least one night.” (7/)
These horrifying photos were taken this week, a week after the subway shutdown has started. This is not a “first day” or even “first week” kink that can be forgiven. (8/)
Don’t care about people who are homeless? How about essential workers? Like these van operators or the 87 of 450 @NYCDHS “peace officers” (security) who have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.
To morally justify forcibly removing people from subways, they (all of them) need to be offered a better alternative. This is not it, NYC. (End)
(Photo @ Wards Island Shelter)
(Photo @ Wards Island Shelter)
NB: Some people have ended up in better places, with actual beds (we are told). And hopefully some can get from shelter system into protective hotel room (offered to some in the shelter system). But even one scene like this is too many.
