Amy runs Feed The Streets NY, a volunteer-led mutual aid group in lower Manhattan. She told me about a homeless man who helps scrape the ice off the sidewalk with his crutches where they set up their food tables. That man is Tony.
The day I met Tony, the weather was around 16 degrees with a wind chill that felt about 3 degrees. Tony is homeless in New York City. Like many homeless NYers, Tony rides the trains at night to stay warm and get a little sleep. As Tony says, you have to be tough to survive the streets of New York City.
Tony went to the hospital to get rods in her legs. Five days after surgery, even before he could walk again, the hospital exited him back to homelessness. The hospital sent Tony to a shelter in Long Island City, but shelters are death traps with the pandemic, so Tony decided to live on the streets. Sadly, hospital dumping is far too common when a patient doesn’t have health insurance or a home to go to.
Tony is a good guy that’s been through some rough times. He just needs some help to get off the streets into housing, but there is no housing for all the people who are homeless on the streets of Manhattan. That’s where you come in.
Your voice can help end homelessness. If we do not fix the affordable housing crisis, homelessness will continue to get worse. Click here to tweet, email, call, or Facebook your federal and state legislators to tell them ending homelessness and creating more affordable housing is a priority to you.
Special thanks to Feed the Streets NY.
