City launches outreach initiative for homeless New Yorkers

Homeless outreach workers talk with a man on a city street. Photo via nyc.gov.

By Victoria Merlino

Thousands of city workers will now call 311 for assistance when they spot unsheltered homeless New Yorkers in a new, multi-agency approach to combating homelessness, according to an announcement by Mayor Bill de Blasio. 

The program, called Outreach NYC, will train 18,000 city employees like firefighters, health inspectors and Department of Sanitation supervisors to submit Service Requests in a 311 app to a joint command center managed by the Department of Homeless Services and the NYPD. Here, the staff will analyze trends and tend to requests.

“We’ve made significant progress in addressing our city’s homelessness crisis under Turning the Tide — and with Outreach NYC, we’re announcing new steps to take that progress even further,” said de Blasio in a statement. “We cannot attempt to address this issue in a vacuum. It’s time we all wear one uniform. Outreach NYC is our all-hands-on-deck approach to bring even more people in off the streets.”

The joint command center, opened last year, seeks to help and address the most challenging cases of homeless residents, where issues such as mental illness or drug misuse makes it difficult for them to utilize city resources. The command center brings together agencies who can understand their needs better, and create better outreach plans. 

There are over 60,000 New York homeless residents living in shelters, according to the daily report recorded by the Department of Homeless Services.