Advocates urge NYC to release clear vaccine plan for city’s homeless
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Mayor Bill de Blasio (right) and Department of Social Services Commissioner Steve Banks (left). The city has yet to release a plan for vaccinating homeless New Yorkers. Photo via nyc.gov
By David Brand
Vaccine rollout will soon reach homeless shelter staff and residents, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Dr. Dave Chokshi said in vague terms Monday.
But when, where, how and what that will look like remains a mystery to homeless New Yorkers and their advocates. They have called on the city to elaborate on the plan for vaccinating some of the city’s most vulnerable residents.
“We need a clear plan to prioritize vaccine access for homeless New Yorkers and those serving them, including people sleeping in shelters and those bedding down on the streets,” said Coalition for the Homeless Policy Director Giselle Routhier.
Nearly 53,000 New Yorkers stayed in a DHS shelter on Jan. 5, according to the city’s most recent daily census.
Staff and residents of homeless shelters are included in “Phase 1B” of the city’s vaccine rollout plan, Chokshi said. New York City is currently in Phase 1A, which includes medical workers and nursing home residents.
Vaccinating shelter staff and residents “is certainly a concern of mine,” Chokshi told reporters during a press briefing Monday.
“We would support, as the Mayor has said, moving as expeditiously as possible to opening up a phase 1B so that those people and others who are in that group can get vaccinated,” he added.
But so far, vaccine distribution has been slow going in New York City and across the country.
The city has partnered with medical providers to conduct COVID-19 tests inside shelters, a potential model for vaccine administration, Routhier said.
The initiative could mirror the rollout at hospitals, nursing homes and long-term care facilities, where healthcare workers have set up vaccine sites to administer shots to hundreds or thousands of people in a single day.
The city will this weekend establish vaccine hubs for healthcare workers and other essential employees at Hillcrest High School and two other public schools. Other plans include a vaccine site at Queens Theatre and additional institutions on city-owned land.
Why not shelters too, said Gail Cooper, the chief strategy officer at The Partnership for the Homeless.
Cooper said the city should have formulated a plan for people living and working in shelters and other congregate settings months ago.
"This is a need that the administration should have prepared for as news about a vaccine broke,” Cooper said. “As with every other aspect of this pandemic, we need to ensure the health and safety of those who are being temporarily housed in our city's shelters, as well as the staff who work there every day.
Thousands of New Yorkers experiencing homelessness have been moved into two-bed hotel rooms to limit the spread of COVID-19. The city intends to transition them back into barracks-style shelters with a dozen or more beds to a room.
Vaccines are an imperative before the city sends homeless New Yorkers back into those close quarters, said Felix Guzman, an organizer with VOCAL-NY who has lived in shelters in the past.
“They are one of the most vulnerable populations,” Guzman said. “It would mean the difference between life and death and it would help to make the experience of being homeless much more humane.”
Many of the city’s homeless also work in essential roles — as home health aides, as delivery workers and even as school staff.
Providing vaccines to homeless New Yorkers early in the process would not just keep them safe, it would demonstrate that the city takes their health seriously, Guzman said.
“The homeless tend to be on the receiving end of services at the very bottom, but this would prioritize their health and safety,” he said. “It would mean the homeless aren’t treated as throwaways but are instead prioritized.”
The Department of Homeless Services has not responded to multiple requests for information for this story.
