It is a scene too many New York subway riders have witnessed: Homeless individuals finding respite in trains and transportation hubs, often lounging on multiple benches or using extra seats to hold their belongings.
For many years, the NYC subway system has been an unauthorized haven for homeless New Yorkers and out-of-towners. Public and private collaborations have addressed the crisis with noticeable improvements, but still, the problem continues throughout the largest public transit system in the nation.
Though it is difficult to give an exact number, approximately 2,000 people live in the NYC subway system, at least according to last year’s HOPE count — an initiative that annually estimates the number of homeless people living in public places such as subways and parks.
With a number that big, many people want to help.
Progress in Times Square
Tom Harris, president of the Times Square Alliance, has worked tirelessly to address the problem hyper-locally in the world-famous neighborhood, specifically when homeless individuals are either forced out or choose to leave the trains. Along with outreach teams from New York State’s Safe Options Support (SOS) program, which launched in 2023, he reaches out to the homeless in an attempt to help get them much-needed services, treatment, and, in some cases, even housing.
The Times Square Alliance has a robust program that includes social workers from nonprofit organizations and SOS providers such as Breaking Ground and Fountain House. These workers assess homeless individuals on the street and get them what they need, whether substance abuse treatment or other supportive services.
“We look at the individual and figure out who is best—and how is best—to help them,” Harris said. “We have a kiosk in the center of Times Square that is staffed by Fountain House to connect people with services. It’s been fantastic. We’ve helped a lot of individuals.”
Since August 2024, the team has interacted with 637 people to provide service and support for those in need. The outreach teams have helped about 59 people get into permanent housing.
Of that number, three people were so mentally ill that they needed to go to the emergency room for psychiatric evaluation. This included an individual who was eating live rats in the street, Harris explained.
“This person was certainly a danger to himself to contract some horrible disease,” Harris said.
Overall, there has been a noticeable improvement in the number of homeless people living on the streets of Times Square since the SOS teams joined forces with the Times Square Alliance to alleviate the neighborhood’s homelessness.
“The state has been phenomenal,” Harris said. “The resources that they have, the care and compassion that their teams show has been fantastic. They have a lot of options for placement that might not be available at the local level.”
Achieving stability
Despite the many success stories, no support or program is foolproof. Homeless individuals continue to seek shelter in trains and underground stations even as outreach teams continue to offer help.
As New Yorkers have witnessed or read too often in the news, homelessness is an issue that impacts not only individuals themselves but innocent bystanders, too, especially with the public transportation system.
Though subway crime has been on the decline so far this year, several recent high-profile, violent incidents in the subways were allegedly committed by homeless individuals, some of whom had mental illness or substance use issues.
Sebastian Zapeta, the 33-year-old migrant who was arrested and charged with setting a woman on fire, killing her, as she burned to death on a Coney Island F train on Dec. 22, was listed as an outpatient at a drug and alcohol rehab center.
Meanwhile, Gov. Kathy Hochul took action earlier this year by initiating efforts to make the subways safer while doubling down on homelessness.
The SOS initiative has transitioned approximately 702 homeless people into permanent housing in NYC and even more statewide. Working with teams of social workers, peers, and sometimes medical professionals, outreach teams canvas areas including train stations, hubs, and parked trains and have made more than 55,000 outreach encounters since 2023.
Of course, teams can not push their services or offers of help onto anyone. If a person refuses assistance—and does not meet criteria for involuntary, temporary commitment—teams move on and leave them alone.
On the subject of hospitalization, it should be noted that Hochul’s executive budget proposes changes to New York’s mental hygiene laws. These changes would inlcude expanding the criteria for involuntary commitment to make it easier to order someone with a mental health issue who poses a risk of physical harm to be hospitalized for treatment, the governor’s office explained.
In the meantime, Hochul said the SOS has been successful.
“New Yorkers with serious mental illness need treatment and support, and our Safe Options Support teams have helped more than 950 New Yorkers exit shelter and find stable housing,” the governor said. “This program has been a resounding success, providing services to individuals experiencing homelessness — including many living with mental illness — and helping them achieve stability in their lives.”
Olivia Cooley, program director at BronxWorks, an SOS provider, knows how outreach can help relieve homelessness. Since early 2023, her organization has placed around 146 homeless individuals in transitional housing.
This kind of housing includes temporary shelter or a similar safe haven — a place that is not the street or train station but also not a permanent home.
“We typically do outreach in the subway system, train stations throughout the Bronx,” Cooley explained. “When we encounter individuals experiencing homelessness, we just try to casually approach them, build rapport. We don’t have police with us. We try to be very approachable.”
The BronxWorks team monitors the homeless in case they need anything, even if it is not long-term housing. Sometimes, what they see requires urgent attention.
“We have responded to an overdose in a train station before,” Cooley said. “There was an individual who was obviously not sleeping and was in a very strange position, unconscious. We had to administer NARCAN and get police and EMS to respond.”
SCOUT-ing efforts
Speaking of police and law enforcement, the SCOUT program — Subway Co-Response Outreach Teams — which also launched in 2023, is another program aimed at combatting homelessness.
According to the governor’s office, SCOUT teams are trained to address the most severe cases of mental health crisis within the subway system and assist New Yorkers in gaining access to mental health treatment and supportive housing.
Unlike SOS, SCOUT is clinician-led, but also includes law enforcement who are on site to help outreach workers handle more challenging cases. Since the fall of 2023, SCOUT has placed homeless people living in the transit system into shelters or given medical transport.
About 18% of cases as of March 2024 were involuntarily placed in hospitals for psychiatric elevation.
As part of her initiatives for keeping subways safe, Hochul recently announced a $20 million investment to expand SCOUT throughout the system by year’s end to help protect New Yorkers on the subway.
And in the meantime, social workers and community leaders said they will continue to help.
Peer specialists — those who have experienced homelessness themselves — also want to help.
“A lot of times it’s helpful because they can relate in some way or another to a client, whereas sometimes they might look at a social worker and say, ‘What do you know?'” Cooley from BronxWorks explained. “So it’s really helpful to have peers on the team.”
