Posted on December 12, 2019 by Current and Former Outreach Workers in Gothamist Gothamist, By Current and Former Outreach Workers After a homeless man allegedly bludgeoned four other homeless men to death on the streets of Chinatown, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Outreach NYC, a new plan to address the ongoing crisis of street homelessness in the city. The center of this plan involves training 18,000 city workers how to use NYC’s 311 hotline to share information about sightings of homeless people—information which gets passed on to homeless outreach workers who go to meet these reported individuals and offer them services and potential housing. As current and former outreach workers, we believe this plan is a massive misdirection of effort and resources, and has the potential to undermine the city’s ability to house and serve the people it is supposed to be helping.
