Photo Courtesy of NYPD
The NYPD now oversees security at all Department of Homeless Services shelter facilities citywide.
By Forum Staff
Officials with the City Department of Social Services and Police Department on Friday took to social media to provide an update for residents and business owners in the five boroughs about the administration’s recent efforts to tackle the homeless crisis.
Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks and NYPD Chief Edward Thompson penned “Keeping our Homeless Neighbors Safe,” and posted it to the Department of Homeless Services Tumblr page:
“Keeping New Yorkers safe is our top priority — whether on the street, in your home, or in shelter. We are always identifying new ways to improve our practices and programs. As part of that effort, the de Blasio administration conducted a 90-day review of homeless services and a comprehensive NYPD review of security at our shelter facilities citywide. Even though stays in shelter are temporary, it is paramount that families, their children and single adults living in shelter feel safe as they work to stabilize their lives and get back on their feet.
In March of last year, we launched our partnership with the NYPD to improve security measures, including standardizing and professionalizing security, surveillance, staff training and deployment — and we invested in additional security.
In April, under the direction of the NYPD management team, DHS security personnel and Peace Officers began receiving enhanced NYPD training to properly address various situations and critical incidents, including working with clients with mental health disorders, a history of victimization and trauma, and domestic violence.
In January of this year, we formalized that partnership, with NYPD now overseeing security at all DHS shelter facilities citywide.
And today, thanks to our collaboration with NYPD, our shelters, including staff and clients, are protected by more and better-trained security personnel, resulting in more effective monitoring, better reporting and increased enforcement, including keeping contraband out, creating a safer environment for all New Yorkers trying to stabilize their lives.
We’ve taken swift and decisive action to make these improvements to ensure that all people residing in shelter feel and are kept safe.
This also includes effectively addressing shelter conditions and issues that have developed over many years due to decades of underinvestment.
We have conducted more than 16,000 inspections with agency partners, an 84-percent increase in inspections over last year — and closed more than 10,400 violations in traditional shelters, an 83-percent reduction in violations since January 2016 with the assistance of the mayor’s revamped Shelter Repair Squad. We have also allocated hundreds of millions of dollars for renovations and an additional $20 million in this year’s budget to further strengthen security, doubling the 2013 investment in DHS security, with total annual security spending of $217 million for Fiscal Year 2017.”
