Homeless Reports Spike In Sheepshead Bay This Year

Sheepshead Bay has seen reports of homelessness spike as much as 100 percent over the previous year, according to an interactive map published by Gothamist.

The map was created by freelance data journalist Steven Melendez, who analyzed vagrancy complaints made to 311 from January 1 to August 31 in both 2014 and 2015. The map shows many of Sheepshead Bay’s surrounding neighborhoods, including Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach, and parts of Gravesend and Bensonhurst, had some the greatest increases in homeless complaints — meaning calls to 311 from the area jumped more than 200 percent.

Check out the map below, courtesy of Gothamist.

Community groups in Sheepshead Bay have been calling for action to address vagrancy in their neighborhood, particularly near the Sheepshead Bay subway station. City Councilman Chaim Deutsch has responded by partnering with the Department of Homeless Services and the local police precinct to relocate homeless people in the area.

However, Captain Winston Faison, Commanding Officer of the 61st Precinct, said during a meeting with the Manhattan Beach Neighborhood Association that cops had limited options to respond to reports about the homeless.

“If there’s a homeless person sitting on a sidewalk, there’s nothing we can do. It’s not illegal to be on a sidewalk,” he said. “When it gets colder, we can force them to go to the hospital because we believe that they could get sick or they could die.”

Residents are encouraged to call 311 if they spot a homeless person who is creating a hazard, which might include:

• Ill outside during a cold weather emergency.
• Blocking a sidewalk or ATM.
• Outstretched or sleeping in a subway, on the tracks, or in another Transit District area.
• Creating a danger to themselves or others.

You may also report a homeless person who “repeatedly occupies the same location or establishes an encampment,” according to the city. Police will respond to calls about vagrancy if they are not already handling an emergency situation.

Across almost the entire city, the press and public have given enormous attention to the homeless crisis this summer. The rise in vagrancy has accompanied a surge in rental prices brought on by New York’s rampaging real estate market. A study by StreetEasy concluded that a worker needs to earn a minimum hourly wage of $38.80 to afford the city’s median rent. In Brooklyn, the minimum hourly wage to make average rent is $35.87.

CIty Comptroller Scott Stringer, writing an op-ed in the Daily News, said more than 56,000 New Yorkers slept in a shelter on a single night this month. He argued that a portion of the affordable housing being built by the city should be set aside for the homeless.

He also pointed out that only 3,000 of the 20,000 affordable units created or preserved in fiscal year 2015 were set aside for people earning less than $38,000 a year.

“The hard truth is that the city needs a long-term strategy to address the root causes of homelessness. Instead, we’ve seen an ad-hoc, piecemeal approach that relies on opening shelters on short notice with lax oversight and quality control,” Stringer wrote.