But I learned by example to just keep moving my feet.
Last night, as the temperature plummeted, I exited the subway in my neighborhood and came upon a homeless man asking to be swiped through the turnstile. Without even a thought, I shook my head no and continued on my way.
But as I climbed the stairs to street level, the arctic air that everyone is now blogging about and/or discussing in office building elevators hit me full force, and it occurred to me that that man was probably asking to be swiped into the subway simply to get off the frozen streets.
“Well,” thought I unsympathetically, “good thing I didn’t swipe him in. The subway trains aren’t rolling homeless shelters, after all.”
Jesus Christ! I choked on my shame. For it occurred to me that, on nights like these, getting off the streets is quite literally a matter of life and death for the city’s homeless. In this man’s case, the only option he saw available to him was to head for the subway. And though I know it’s not a “solution,” I suddenly felt the urge to go back and swipe him in, laws and ethics be damned. “So his presence may make a few people’s subway rides unpleasant tonight,” I thought. “Small price to pay in exchange for his life.”
But of course, I didn’t go back. I played the classic passive New Yorker card: “Eh, someone else will do it.” And now, I shamefacedly realize that if by some small chance that man died on the streets last night, there is some measure of blood on my hands.
So in this deathly cold, what resources are available to the city’s homeless? And what can we, the “homed,” actually do to help?
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Chris,
I’m constantly pulled left and right by my combination sympathy/antipathy towards homeless - how they got there, their (un)willingness to get better and out of it, etc.
I’m trying to find out some details on the state of homeless shelters and “rehabilitation” services available. There’s a part of me that thinks these services are underutilized because many people don’t care to change their lot but I want to confirm it. What if it’s a matter of there simply being too many homeless to handle?
My professor in grad school used to tell us you hadn’t lived through a New York winter until you came across a homeless person who had frozen to death. I’ve been here 6 years and haven’t yet, so I wonder if I just haven’t lived or if strides have been made.
Hmm.. I used to work in a place called Adult protective services where there are caseworkers who are assigned to check up on elderly citizens of New York during these harsh winter conditions as well as equally harsh hot weather.
I have heard many a times that due to some neglect in the household, they had left a grandma and went on vacation and this poor soul had perished because no one knew that she was in the house with no heat.
APS is one of the programs that try to help… but it only sees people who already have a home, your encounter with someone who doesnt even have that necessity is really something that the govt should look into.
Irfan