City peace officers will be transferred away from homeless shelters for single adults — leaving some shelters to handle security on their own, three sources familiar with the situation revealed to the Daily News.
The move by the Department of Homeless Services will affect approximately 40 shelters that house single adult men and women and also has implications for the homeless intake centers where peace officers are to be redeployed, two of the sources said.
The city’s plan leaves a security gap at single adult shelters and creates an additional problem at intake centers, where the peace officers will replace non-profit employees trained in providing trauma-informed care, said Catherine Trapani, executive director of Homeless Services United.
The peace officers, she said, are not as well-trained in the social services aspect of caring for the homeless.
The move comes as residents of some city neighborhoods fight pitched battles over recently arrived homeless people. For weeks, a vocal group of Upper West Side residents urged Mayor de Blasio to transfer homeless residents from the Lucerne Hotel over quality life concerns, including open drug use and menacing.
Similar battles have played out in Midtown, Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea after the city transferred homeless people from traditional shelters to hotels to slow the spread of coronavirus through social distancing.
How the transfer of peace officers might affect that dynamic is still unclear.
The new policy is aimed at saving money, said Greg Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237, which represents Homeless Services police. The savings, said Floyd, will probably come through attrition or reductions in overtime rather than layoffs of his members.
“I haven’t seen their plan yet,” he said.
Another source with knowledge of the situation said the savings will be exacted on the backs of social service intake workers who will lose their jobs after being replaced by DHS police.
“You’re taking these folks who are providing essential services and replacing them with a unionized police force,” the source said.
Trapani said several non-profits expect to see DHS police transferred from the facilities they operate. One of those is WIN, which provides services to women and children.
Former City Council speaker Christine Quinn, WIN’s CEO, said she learned about the Department of Homeless Services’ plans last week.
“A person who is not well — they cannot get better, they cannot rebound, they cannot get healthy, if they are not safe. How many times have we heard reports of people not wanting to go into shelters because it’s not safe?” she said.
“Instead of the city Department of Homeless Services taking this great opportunity to have their security work hand-in-hand with our security guards, they’re just taking them out.”
Quinn said the peace officers will be moved in November.
Homeless Services is still working out the specifics of the plan, said an agency official. The move is aimed at finding savings using security staff “more strategically, the official said.
“We are committed to continually evaluating how we can provide security and safety more holistically,” said DHS spokesman Isaac McGinn.
