Amid crisis, de Blasio expands outreach to street homeless
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday that he is launching a sweeping initiative to combat the persistent problem of homelessness in New York City, ordering teams to do a daily canvass of every block of an 8-mile stretch in Manhattan to reach out to those living on the street.
The new program, announced at a high-profile speech to a major New York business group, is the latest in a series of moves by City Hall meant to show that it is urgently combatting the homelessness crisis after taking months of criticism that it was slow to address the problem.
The new Home-Stat program will deploy teams from the city’s Department of Homeless Services to walk every block from Canal Street to 145th Street, a prime stretch of Manhattan where most of the estimated 3,000 to 4,000 street homeless are found. They will be tasked with engaging the homeless to offer services and urge them to seek shelter.