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Dear Open Hearts Family,
On October 7th, New York City reached a grim milestone: the number of people in Department of Homeless Services (DHS) shelters hit an all-time record. Since then, the numbers have continued to climb, and as of this weekend, 63,100 of our neighbors were staying in DHS shelters. Thousands more are living in the city's smaller domestic violence and youth shelter systems and on the streets.
Many of the individuals and families entering shelter recently arrived in the U.S. to seek asylum, and they often arrive with no more than the clothes on their backs. They enter a shelter system that is already at capacity--in large part because it takes folks over 500 days on average to exit shelter into housing, due to the immense barriers to accessing housing that homeless New Yorkers have long faced and continue to face. While recent events have magnified and drawn attention to these issues, this is a crisis that has been building for years. Last week, Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency.
In this moment of crisis, we've heard from many of you who are eager to offer support to new arrivals and longtime New Yorkers alike who are experiencing homelessness. Below, we've listed several ways to help, ranging from opportunities to help meet immediate needs to opportunities to get involved in longer-term advocacy to help address the issues that got us here. This list is not exhaustive, and we look forward to sharing more opportunities to help in the future.
Check out the opportunities below to offer support to and advocate alongside neighbors experiencing homelessness.
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7 Ways to Support Homeless Neighbors Right Now
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1. Join a Team TLC shift to welcome new neighbors arriving at the Port Authority.
Team TLC NYC, an affiliate group of Grannies Respond/Abuelas Responden, is a grassroots organization committed to providing basic needs and support to asylum seekers and immigrants. They have been leading the effort to greet migrants who are arriving in NYC by bus (some at Port Authority and some at the Megabus stop at W. 34th St), and they need volunteers every day of the week. In addition to providing a warm welcome, volunteers help migrants make their way to shelters, connect with family or friends, and secure bus tickets if they want to travel elsewhere. Volunteers also provide food, clothing, and toiletries to help meet folks' immediate needs. Volunteers who speak Spanish are especially needed, but folks who don't can be helpful, too. Learn more and sign up for a shift here.
2. Help load and transport donations in Midtown for families experiencing homelessness.
Our Midtown chapter had an incredibly successful toy drive last week for homeless families at a local shelter, in partnership with several elected officials and the NYPL's Epiphany Library branch. Now we need some extra hands on deck to transport donated items from Epiphany Library on 23rd St in Manhattan to their destination nearby! If you’re available THIS WEEK to help load these items into a car/van, please reach out ASAP to info@openheartsinitiative.org.
3. Gather supplies and assemble "Welcome Backpacks" for arriving migrants.
La Morada, a neighborhood restaurant in the South Bronx, and our friends (and Free Store hosts!) at the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew on the Upper West Side will be delivering backpacks full of emergency supplies to the Port Authority twice a month. Their goal is to provide at least 50 bags for each delivery, and the first delivery is scheduled for October 24th. They need folks to gather supplies for and assemble the backpacks! Things can be mailed or dropped off at the church (263 W. 86th St., NY, NY 10024), c/o Pastor Lea Matthews and clearly labeled "Welcome Backpacks." Here are the items they need:
- Adult sized backpacks
- $22 Metrocard
- $20 bill
- shaving cream
- razor
- 1 or 2 pairs of adult socks
- face cloth
- towel
- soap
- toothpaste
- toothbrush
- nail clippers
- shampoo
- menstrual supplies
- granola bar
- candy
- nuts
- hand sanitizer
- wipes
- water bottle
- pack of gum
- sharpie marker
- comb
- bar of soap holder
- name tag for luggage
If you have any questions about this project, please reach out to Pastor Lea at Lea@stpaulandstandrew.org.
4. Donate a gently used or new coat.
As the weather gets colder, coats are always an essential item for our homeless neighbors--particularly for folks living on the streets and for those who recently arrived from warmer places and may not have any winter clothing.
If you live on the Upper West Side, the Ellington shelter at 610 W. 111th St (between Broadway and Riverside Drive) is a great place to donate coats, snowsuits for babies, snow boots, and cold weather gear for adults and kids of all ages and sizes. These items can be dropped off at any time with the security staff at the shelter. UWS Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal is also accepting donations (for families at a different shelter!) through October 21st--you can learn more about that here.
If you live elsewhere in NYC, check out this drop-off map created by New York Cares to see a map of locations and organizations accepting coat donations. Feel free to reach out to us as well at info@openheartsinitiative.org if you're looking for a place near you to donate a coat--while we can't guarantee that we'll have somewhere to connect you with, we are connected with many shelters and community organizations in NYC and can try to point you in the right direction.
5. Get involved in city-level policy efforts to help homeless neighbors exit shelter and access permanent housing.
Open Hearts continues to participate in citywide efforts led by homeless New Yorkers to push for policy changes that would help folks in shelters access permanent housing more quickly.
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The Fair Chance for Housing Act is a bill in the City Council that would end housing discrimination against people with conviction records.
This is a step that would make it easier for many of our neighbors to exit shelter and access housing. Take action with this easy tool to reach out to your Council Member to express your support for this legislation.
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Source-of-income discrimination--when landlords or brokers discriminate against a potential tenant because they have a voucher--continues to be a major issue.
Rental assistance vouchers like CityFHEPS are a crucial tool to help homeless neighbors access housing--but in addition to the administrative issues with the program that often discourage landlords from participating, the rampant discrimination against voucher-holders can make vouchers much less useful. If you're interested in supporting upcoming efforts to challenge this discrimination, please email info@openheartsinitiative.org and we can help you get plugged in.
6. Support state-level policy efforts to prevent homelessness and get folks housed.
With the state legislative session coming up in a few months, it's crucial to make our voices heard to let our state elected officials know that New Yorkers need them to prioritize policies to get and keep our neighbors housed. Policies like Good Cause Eviction, the Housing Access Voucher Program, and more would reduce the number of people entering homelessness and make it far easier to exit homelessness for people who are currently experiencing it. If you're interested in getting involved in upcoming efforts to demonstrate support for these important policies, email us at info@openheartsinitiative.org, and we can help you get plugged in.
7. Connect with and help build support for homeless neighbors in your community.
If you're not yet involved in an OHI chapter or affiliated neighborhood group, now is a critical moment to get involved! As the number of people experiencing homelessness skyrockets, we're also seeing that dehumanizing rhetoric and actions to try to keep homeless neighbors out are unfortunately also on the rise. This makes building the kinds of connections across housing status that we work to build at OHI especially important. Sign up here to get involved or request our support in a neighborhood that doesn't yet have an OHI presence!
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Upcoming Panel: Faith, Fear, and Fair Chance for Housing
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This Wednesday at 6pm, our friend Carl Garrison will be speaking on a panel alongside other faith leaders about Faith, Fear, and Fair Chance for Housing--organized by the Fair Chance for Housing coalition, of which OHI is a part. Register to watch the virtual panel here, and please share widely--this is a great opportunity to learn more about why the Fair Chance for Housing Act is so important!
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A Quick Snapshot: What Have We Been Up to In the Past Few Weeks?
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Our UWS chapter had another Free Store this past weekend--one of the most popular ones yet!
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Together with local elected officials, our Midtown chapter collected hundreds of donated toys, books, and stuffed animals for families experiencing homelessness at a hotel shelter in the neighborhood.
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