Program to help subway homeless conceals arrest quota system, transit cops claim

A Thin Blue Line flag hangs on a wall outside the NYPD Transit District 20 post in the Briarwood E/F subway station. Eagle photo by David Brand

By David Brand

An anonymous letter from people identifying themselves as transit police officers claims the de Blasio Administration and the NYPD have turned a program for moving homeless New Yorkers from subway cars to shelters into an arrest and summons quota system that targets the city’s poorest residents.

Amid complaints of homeless New Yorkers taking up space and intimidating other passengers in subway cars, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a June pilot program that would help unhoused New Yorkers get shelter and other services. “Subjecting these individuals to criminal justice involvement for low level, non-violent offenses is not the answer and does not help anyone,” de Blasio said.

But rather than help the homeless, the letter states, the diversion program is “blatant discrimination” that deliberately criminalizes homeless New Yorkers and coerces them to accept services only after arresting them or issuing summonses and taking them to police precincts, the anonymous transit police write in the letter.

“The homeless are now clearly being targeted as violators of transit rules and being treated differently than any other citizen,” the letter states, describing how officers approach people who they perceive as homeless an me issue summonses for a violation known as “outstretched” — taking up more than one space on the train.

“It is the same violation committed by anyone who even lays their bag on another seat,” the letter states. “This is something we all have done ourselves and witness everyday. Those situations are not addressed in the same manner.”

The Mayor’s Office did not immediately respond to the Eagle’s request for comment.

Council Committee on Public Safety Chairman Donovan Richards questions NYPD Transit brass and Department of Homeless Services officials about a plan to divert homeless New Yorkers from the subway system. Photo by John McCarten via City Council/Flickr.

The letter was published by the Coalition for the Homeless Tuesday ahead of a City Council Committee on Public Safety and Committee on General Welfare joint hearing on the subway diversion program. At the hearing, Committee Chair Donovan Richards criticized the police for issuing summonses as a means for compelling people experiencing homelessness into services. 

“I don’t think summonses necessarily are going to change anything,” Richards told Transit Bureau brass, adding that the program does not appear to help homeless New Yorkers move to shelters. “There’s a reason people aren’t going into shelters.”

“People feel safer on the train than they do in shelter,” added Committee on General Welfare Chair Stephen Levin later.

Transit Bureau Chief Edward Dellatorre said the letter contained false information and denied that the transit police maintain a quota system. “We’re part of a multi-agency effort to try to help,” Dellatorre said.

Richards asked whether Dellatorre thought summonses were an appropriate approach to driving homeless New Yorkers into services. Dellatorre said he did in certain circumstances.

“We live in a world of community policing where a uniform should not affect these relationships,” Dellatore said “I think [summonses are] a very good way … Public health is to some extent our responsibility.” 

Richards countered that the cost of the summonses — which Dellatorre pegged at $50 — could be money better spent on meals or other needed expenses. 

The summonses mean the homeless are "basically being coerced into accepting a program,” Richards said. "I find this an insult to give a homeless person a $50 ticket."

Dellatorre also told councilmembers that the NYPD did not have data on the number of summonses issued to homeless New Yorkers on subways in the past year, but confirmed that the majority are for the “outstretched” violation. He said the officers also contact outreach workers when engaging homeless New Yorkers on the subway.

Other councilmembers questioned what services actually exist for homeless New Yorkers engaged in the diversion program.

“In this plan where are all the healthcare services? Where is the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene?” said Councilmember Vanessa Gibson. “In order for this to work we don’t always want to see uniformed officers, we want to see clinicians and social workers.”

“This should not just be led by the NYPD, but based on this hearing it appears to be,” Gibson continued. 

The anonymous letter said transit officers “have lost focus” on overall crime, including counter-terrorism, as they pursue arrests against the homeless. Photos of homeless people are tacked on the walls at some transit bureau stations, next to known subway criminals, the letter adds.

Councilmember Adrienne Adams asked officers and the Department of Homeless Services about a specific arrest of a woman who resides at the Jamaica Center subway station. The woman has been at the station for a decade and is known as “Grandma,” Adams said. 

A video of the arrest, where officers press the woman into the ground and handcuff her, went viral, prompting scrutiny of NYPD practices, Adams said. “Because this was a woman who was a senior citizen, this was particularly disturbing to me,” she said.