A Queens subway station that became the last stop for many of the city's homeless is looking and smelling a lot better these days. NY1's Ruschell Boone filed the following report.
It's still a popular hub for many of the city's homeless, but the number of people living at the Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer station has dropped significantly in the last few months.
Queens activist Pamela Hazel contacted us in March after she and other riders said the issue had become overwhelming.
"It was just so filthy. It was unacceptable. It was a health hazard," Hazel said.
There were homeless people showering in the bathrooms and dozens more were on the platforms and the trains.
Back then, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it was expanding its outreach program and the police commissioner said he would be looking at homelessness in the transit system as part of his focus on quality-of-life issues.
A few weeks after our story aired, the MTA and the city conducted a massive outreach campaign which they say was already planned.
Yeah, I think the weather had more to do with the evacuation than an outreach campaign. Just wait until December.
6 comments:
They've moved to 71 Av in Forest Hills. So what did the outreach accomplish???
@ anon#1 Unfortunately, they will not just disappear. I hope the MTA will at least keep moving them around and not let them get comfortable at one station.
Well there's at least 4 at 71 Av sleeping on the platform benches and one hanging around a Metro Card machine. They weren't here 2 weeks ago. MTA notified.
Send em to the PanAm!
Was at the this station yesterday. I did not see one homeless person and there was more cops their. The bathrooms were closed.
Was at the this station yesterday. I did not see one homeless person and there was more cops their. The bathrooms were closed.
Unfortunately, the MTA's response when there is a problem is to remove things. If there's too much trash, they remove the trash cans and assume that commuters will take their trash with them and not just throw it onto the platform or the tracks. If there's a problem with homeless bathing and/or hanging out in the bathrooms, they lock the bathrooms. Although there's a Starbucks (with a bathroom) on every corner in Manhattan, there are fewer shops in the outer boroughs that welcome non-customers to use their toilets.
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