Homeless shelter NIMBYism scapegoats most vulnerable New Yorkers

The ugliness in Queens continues.

The Coalition for the Homeless reports that 60,000 homeless people live in New York City, but that cold, hard fact doesn't matter to protesters who scream “Not In My Backyard” in opposition to temporary housing in their communities.

The doomsday scenarios propagated by these NIMBYists – that crime spikes will engulf safe neighborhoods, property values will plummet, rampant drug abuse and violent crime will result – are misguided. The groups most vociferously opposed to sharing the city’s shelter burden employ the worst kind of scapegoating against assisting a dispossessed and vulnerable group, while also spewing vulgar language undergirded by prejudiced arguments.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration wants to create temporary shelters by converting hotels to housing in several Queens neighborhoods. It is a stopgap measure to stem the homeless tide; 60,000 is nearly the population of the entire upstate city of Utica, New York, and the highest number since the Great Depression, according to the Coalition for the Homeless. The group also finds that the number of people sleeping each night in municipal shelters is 86 percent higher than just 10 years ago.

Most recently, in the face of public opposition and protests, the city modified a plan to convert a hotel in Maspeth into a shelter.  

The effort to shelter people in appropriate locations is a responsibility all five boroughs must share. It is guided by a city policy to provide shelter for all homeless people and that makes every effort to house homeless children as close to where they attend school as possible. A recent study, which found that homeless students are more likely than their peers to drop out and not finish high school, confirms the policy’s insight.

Yet as a record number of homeless New Yorkers swell the city’s shelter system, protesters’ vulgar and profane acts seem to know no bounds. At a Queens Community Board 5 meeting in August, attendees screamed at Human Resources Administration Commissioner Steven Banks. During this embarrassing episode, someone also yelled, “This is not East New York,” (as if that predominantly black and Latino neighborhood is somehow a more appropriate place to put shelters).

Many who rabidly oppose the temporary shelters traveled to a rally outside Banks’ Brooklyn home. A reporter who attempted to document it on video was physically blocked by a protester and then insulted on Twitter for doing her job.

The talking points from shelter protesters that rampant public intoxication, drug use and violent crime will follow homeless shelters are unsupported by research and empirical evidence.  

Yes, homeless people are more likely than the general population to have been arrested or committed an offense, but they are usually minor ones. Because the homeless have higher rates of mental illness, homeless people are actually more likely to be victims of violent crimes, not perpetrators.

This relationship is backed by evidence, not outlandish claims. The Coalition for the Homeless finds that, “Studies show that the large majority of street homeless New Yorkers are people living with mental illness or other severe health problems.”

Jeremy D. Kidd, chief resident physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital and New York Psychiatric Institute, wrote in the New York Times that “While popular culture and political discourse often link mental illness with the perpetuation of violence, the reality is that people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violent crime. “

A 2008 study by New York University psychology graduate student Sean Fischer and colleagues that examined the relationship between homelessness, mental illness and criminal activity among 207 city homeless people over a four-year period found no solid link between violent crime and homelessness.

The study determined that most offenses committed by homeless people are non-violent "nuisance offenses," like panhandling or subway fare evasion.

“Criminal activity isn't a staple characteristic of these people,” Fischer says. “It may be more accurate to think of them as people struggling to get by.”

It’s unfortunate that the residents who comprise community associations and neighborhood groups are channeling their activist passion on scapegoating the homeless rather than helping alleviate myriad problems in the city. And couching their concerns over reduced property values in prejudiced remarks just further victimizes an already vulnerable group of people.

Protesters have every right to criticize de Blasio's policies, but blaming the people who are themselves suffering is ugly, uncharitable and unethical, and their arguments simply don’t hold up to scrutiny.

Noah Zuss is a journalist based in New York.