Homelessness in the Summer of COVID-19

In July 2020, members of Human.nyc interviewed 32 street homeless individuals throughout Manhattan to better understand their experiences accessing hygiene and heat-related services. Specifically, we were interested in identifying how access to services has changed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Findings

Water: Access to water is necessary to stay hydrated during the summer months, however only 12 respondents (37.5%) reported an ability to stay hydrated all of the time in the last 60 days. Fourteen respondents (43.8%) said they were able to stay hydrated some of the time, and nearly a fifth (n=6, 18.8%) said they were able to stay hydrated none of the time in the last 60 days. While completing the surveys, some respondents shared that private establishments they previously relied on for water were now closed or less willing to allow them inside during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among those who reported experiencing homelessness last summer and this summer (n=27), the majority (n=19, 70.4%) said that it was somewhat or a lot more difficult to find water than last year. 

Bathrooms: Regular bathroom access is an important resource for maintaining health, however a majority of respondents  (n=19, 59.4%) said they had trouble finding a bathroom all of the time in the last 60 days, and over a fifth (n=7, 21.9%) had trouble accessing a bathroom some of the time. Among respondents who were also homeless last summer (n=27), 21 (n=77.8%) said it was a lot (n=18) or somewhat more (n=3) difficult to find a bathroom this summer compared to last summer. Similar to the challenges accessing water, some respondents described that private establishments that they previously relied on for bathrooms were now less welcoming or closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The most common locations respondents reported locating bathrooms at were: Port-a-potties (n=10), public bathrooms in transportation centers (n=8), public bathrooms in parks (n=8), and in emergency departments or hospitals (n=8). Importantly, five individuals reported there was a time they needed a bathroom but couldn’t find one - leading to having to go to the bathroom on the streets or elsewhere outside, or in a bottle. However, due to the sensitive nature of this question, we believe this number to be an underrepresentation of the true lack of immediate access to bathrooms. 

Cooling Centers: The City operates cooling centers during high temperatures to ensure people have access to air-conditioning. With many public places closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to socially-distance, we were interested in what types of places respondents had been able to access. Twenty-two (68.8%) respondents said they had been somewhere for the purpose of staying cool in the last 60 days. Only one person said they had used a City-operated cooling center. The most common locations reported for staying cool were stores (n=9), drop-in centers (n=5), public transit (n=3), hospitals or emergency departments (n=3), and shelters (n=3). 

What’s most important: We asked individuals to rate how important access to each of the following resources were to them: water, cooling spaces, new clothing, bathrooms, and showers. Over 90% of respondents said that access to bathrooms were either very important (n=26, 81.3%) or important (n=3, 9.4%) to them. Similarly, over 90% reported that access to water was very important (n=24, 75%) or important (n=5, 15.6% to them). 

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that access to bathrooms and water have been curtailed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the fact that our neighbors experiencing homelessness have identified these as most important to them. 

Recommendations

In collaboration with our membership and other street or subway homeless New Yorkers, Human.nyc is putting forth the following recommendations to alleviate the serious concerns raised by our survey respondents. The recommendations operate under the assumption that the City is not willing to house all unsheltered homeless New Yorkers in a safe way. However, we must reiterate that housing or hotels would immediately alleviate all issues described in the surveys.

Water: The Department of Homeless Services should immediately equip its outreach teams with both plastic non-reusable water bottles and empty reusable water bottles to provide to unsheltered New Yorkers. Alongside the reusable water bottles, DHS should provide information (eg. Cooling Centers, places to get meals, showers), either as a pamphlet stuffed inside the bottle or printed subtly on the bottle itself. There should be no heat threshold for when the DHS-contracted outreach teams give out water bottles, rather, they should be constantly equipped with them throughout the remainder of the pandemic.

Bathrooms: The Department of Transportation should immediately place the remaining 15 automated public toilets throughout the City, per the recommendations made by Picture the Homeless through its #FreeToPee campaign. Further, the Department of Homeless Services should continue and expand their use of temporary hygiene facilities, including porta-potties and hang washing stations,  near homeless encampments or pop-ups, per CDC guidance. At the same time, they should immediately halt all street sweeps or “clean-ups,” again per CDC guidance. Additionally, the City should work to expeditiously open, and repair when necessary, all Park bathrooms, and keep them open 24/7. Finally, until all the toilets are in service and accessible to those who need them, there should be no tickets handed out anywhere for public urination.

Cooling Centers: The Department of Homeless Services should further equip its outreach teams with materials to share with clients on how they can stay cool. This should include lists of cooling centers and their hours. Additionally, the City should consider setting up outdoor pop-up tents with cold water, port-a-potties, and EMTs, where any New Yorkers suffering from the heat can visit. These should be located near areas with high concentrations of unsheltered homelessness, such as Penn Station, Grand Central, and Union Square. Reports of encampments should be met with similar tents rather than street sweeps or “clean-ups,” per CDC guidance.

Housing & Hotels: As previously mentioned, providing permanent housing or a hotel room allows people to stay cool, drink water, and use the bathroom, which would alleviate most, if not all, concerns identified in this report. The City should continue to aggressively expand its stabilization bed program, which has shown a significantly higher rate of success (people staying once placed) than its traditional shelters. The City should work to increase the value of its CityFHEPS voucher to move people out of hotels and off the streets into permanent housing, per Neighbors Together’s VALUE in Housing campaign. The City Council should pass Intro 1927 to mandate that the Department of Homeless Services provide all unsheltered New Yorkers with the offer of a private hotel room.