Public transport The government in the United States is tasked with running clean, safe and effective mode of transport. However, they are increasingly responsible for solving a crisis in which they did not have a hand: the rise of homeless.
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After the death of Jordan Neely, a man was seen acting erratically and begging on the New York subway before a the passenger strangled him to death, it’s clear that a conversation about transit and homelessness is much needed in this country. An extremely detailed investigation from Evil behavior delved deep into the causes of homeless people sheltering on public transportation and found only one regional transit agency, Philadelphia’s Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, providing resources resources and services for their homeless people. It’s a partnership between the city, SEPTA, and the HOME Project called The Hub. It provides free breakfast, showers, laundry, and basic medical services to Philadelphia’s homeless:
Candice Player, Project HOME’s vice president of outreach, told Motherboard during a recent Hub visit that the goal is to meet people where they are. If they just need a place to sit, do laundry and shower, they can do it. If they want to see a caseworker or licensed medical professional, they can do that too. Anyone can come, no questions asked. There are no metal detectors to go through, no police or armed guards. Guests just need to bring their belongings to the door.
“The purpose of programs like the Hub of Hope is to provide a pathway to housing, but also to try to meet people’s immediate needs for food, clothing, and shelter,” Player said. “It’s about having a place where they don’t get kicked out.”
The Hub of Hope is the answer to an increasingly pressing question facing America’s transit agencies: What should they do about the growing rate of homelessness on their system? The service it provides sounds like a common and obvious part of an overall solution. And yet, the Hub of Hope is a one-off. No other US transportation agency has anything like it.
So far, the answer to making the poor illegal has not really worked, although states continue to push harder. and harsher punishments for the homeless. However, what should be done requires more than just transportation authorities equipped to handle:
I find a near-universal consensus that the old approach is to rely on police enforcement—create a code of conduct that prohibits specific things homeless people do in public, then arrest them for it—being unpopular. Instead, transit agencies have adopted a model of “partnership” with existing city agencies and nonprofits to address homelessness, a move that sounds like a no-brainer. reasonable but often used as another reason to continue to invest little or no money in the matter.
All of this creates a conundrum for shipping agencies accustomed to the old way of doing things. In their view, they are caught between the immediate requirements of running a clean, safe and efficient transportation service and the causes of the homelessness crisis—lack of affordable housing. along with inadequate health care—over which they cannot control. and they don’t have the funds to develop promising efforts at the scale that could make a difference.
“In a perfect world, there would be a million of us,” said Holly Winge of CapMetro’s community intervention program in Austin, referring to case and outreach workers. “But even in that perfect world, where there are tons of community intervention specialists, there is not enough housing. So we can do housing assessments, we can get people’s IDs. They will still be waiting on their waiting list.”
At Philly’s The Hub, homeless people are treated with respect and not only provided with services but also provided with a place to stay for the day at least without getting them kicked out. Coffee and Sandwiches are spontaneously provided by Wawa. It’s far from Los Angeles’ explosive music tactics to keep the homeless moving. Or just force them to park on the side of the road in leaky RVs, like in Marin County, California.
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