By Jeannette Neumann
The city will step up efforts to get the homeless off the streets and into shelters if the Wednesday storm covers Brooklyn in snow as forecasters predict, authorities told the Brooklyn Ink Tuesday. If temperatures drop below 32 degrees Fahrenheit amid a snow storm, the city will double to 30 the number of outreach officers that direct the homeless to shelters and save havens, said the NYC Department of Homeless Services deputy press secretary Kristy Buller. The City’s shelters house 37,298 people each night. An estimated 2,300 people remain on the streets, Buller said. That’s a 47 percent decrease in the number of unsheltered homeless people since 2005.
“Anyone who wants to come inside, there will be space made for them,” she said.
Outreach officers are already on the streets 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but efforts are bolstered during cold weather to prevent the homeless from suffering from conditions like hypothermia and frost bites. If any Brooklynite sees a homeless person on the street during Wednesday’s forecasted storm, the city encourages them to call 311 and an outreach officer will respond and do what he or she can to let that person know that there is shelter available.
Leave a Reply