The city’s night shelters for homeless and runaway youth, which serve a growing number of youth, received a shocking message last month: “Effective immediately, providers must stop putting youth and young adults to sleep.”
At least one of the centers has responded in turn: no.
Alexander Roque, who runs Ali Forney, a center in Manhattan that serves LGBTQ youth, said “they would have to shut us down and handcuff me” before he would comply with the directive.
“If the city threatens us and takes away our funding, I will continue to let our customers sleep because that’s what’s at stake, their sanity is at stake,” said Mr. Roque.
The drop-in centers, operated by five city-funded nonprofits, are not homeless shelters, but there is one in each neighborhood that is open 24 hours a day for teens and youth between the ages of 14 and 24. , including education and career services. And while they don’t function as official shelters for the homeless, many had also provided cots or other places to sleep for young people.
The directive has thrown providers and customers into chaos at a time when the number of young people served by the programs is soaring. In the first four months of fiscal year 2023, a total of 1,445 youth and young adults received case management services in the drop-in programs, an increase of 48 percent from the same period last year, according to the provisional report of the mayor published in January. (Three of the walk-in clinics included in the data were day clinics that did not provide 24-hour service.)
Last week, walk-in center providers spoke to department officials in a failed attempt to reverse the directive.
The city says the ban was issued Jan. 13 by the city agency that oversees them, the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development, and first reported by the news site The City – helps ensure that the centers are in compliance with state law and do not operate as “unlicensed shelters.” According to the directive, clients are still allowed to ‘rest’ in the centres.
“Our goal is to meet health and safety standards and avoid regulatory issues,” Keith Howard, the department’s commissioner, said in a statement.
Funded through city contracts, the centers are expected to direct customers to one of the city’s 50 residential programs, which are administered by the Department of Youth and Community Development, not the city’s main homeless agency, the Department or Homeless Services. These programs have a total of 813 assigned beds, including 753 for youth ages 16 to 20 and 60 for those ages 21 to 24, according to the department.
Only 45 beds are currently available for the older age group after the city cut ties with one provider in November 2021. The 15 remaining beds are expected to become available in April, the department said.
“The city has a responsibility to make sure young people are safe, which includes using our drop-in centers as designed,” Mark Zustovich, a spokesperson for the department, said in a statement.
Added the city 300 beds for 16 to 20 year olds over a three-year period starting in 2016, but the number of general youth beds still falls far short of need, advocates for homeless youth say. Many young people are avoiding the adult shelter system due to safety concerns, and providers say the drop-in programs are critical for young people in crisis as the city’s overall homeless population reach record level.
“Anyone can get a referral right away,” said Susan Haskell, the city department’s deputy youth services commissioner. “It could be for DYCD’s system, it could be for DHS’s system, it could be for other housing options.”
State Representative Linda Rosenthal, a Democrat representing parts of the Upper West Side and Hell’s Kitchen, said the directive is “impossibly cruel.”
“The city needs to do more to pave the way for housing for these people,” Ms Rosenthal said. “Getting rid of cribs is not a housing plan.”
Gabriel Calix, 25, spent seven years sleeping in a drop-in center run by Sheltering Arms, a nonprofit organization, after his mother moved to Atlanta with her boyfriend when Mr. Calix was 18, eventually leaving him with nowhere to live. It was at Sheltering Arms where he internalized a series of words painted on the black staircase leading to his Jamaica, Queens, branch: love, joy, hope, faith, achieve, goals, lead.
Mr. Calix was stunned when he heard about the directive banning young people from sleeping in the centers: “Now that they can’t sleep here, where will they go?”
To further complicate the situation, Sheltering Arms, which also offers foster care, mental health and housing programs, will be closing its doors this spring after 200 years of existence, as first reported by Gothamist. The nonprofit is closing due to “financial challenges,” it said, including millions of dollars in late payments from the city’s Department of Education and declining revenues due to low enrollment rates and staff turnover.
Sheltering Arms said it has signed a contract with Rising Ground, a non-profit organization that provides services to children, adults and families in the city, to absorb the majority of its staff and programs. Rising Ground is expected to take over Sheltering Arms’ contract with the city and run the drop-in center on the same site.
Mr. Roque, the president and executive director of the Ali Forney Center, said he estimated his staff serves about 20 customers each night at the Manhattan drop-in center.
He said city officials listened to providers during a recent phone call and apologized for the directive’s abruptness. But when he later emailed for clarification on the status of the directive, he got a four-word reply: “The directive still stands.”
“How do I go to 20 young people tonight and tell them: ‘The guideline remains. Waking. The directive stands. You can’t sleep,” he said.
In May 2013, Samirah Crawford, then 20, came to Ali Forney in a moment of desperation. Her mother kicked her out of the house.
Ms. Crawford, who is bisexual, said she feared the city’s adult shelters because of bad experiences at shelters growing up. After Ali Forney became the city’s first drop-in center to offer night shifts in 2015, Ms. Crawford began spending evenings there.
Beds weren’t always available – Mrs. Crawford spent a few nights in parks and on trains – but when she walked through Ali Forney’s doors, she felt safe. Ms Crawford, now 30, has held various positions at Ali Forney since 2019. She is alarmed by what the directive could mean for the center’s customers.
“I was embraced with so much love and care,” said Ms. Crawford. “It was very important because those were some of the most vulnerable times of my life.”
Racquel Jones, program director at the Sheltering Arms shelter in Jamaica, said some young people who used to sleep at night spend their evenings on trains and in abandoned houses.
Mr. Roque said he doesn’t want his customers to have to make those kinds of choices. For the time being, the beds will remain outside at Ali Forney.