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Hello, I was homeless, on the streets of Manhattan, in the summer of 2008. People from Common Ground and Midnight Run interviewed me. Even the guys who used to have their big jars on the streets wanted to help me and give me money. Even so, I can tell you from my experience that it is heartbreaking to be out there. The sleep depravation, not being able to be somewhere warm when it rains or snows and the way some people look at the homeless—it’s all very depressing. It should not happen to anyone. Eugenia Renskoff

I'm concerened about what is called The Scattered (or Cluster) Sites Program of DHS, that pays landlord around $3,000 per month to place homeless families in thier vacant apartments. What we've seen in the Bronx is that this is fueling Landlords to push out thier long-time tenants in order to get that whopping $3000 per month (or $100) per night.

What we are also seeing is that it is destabalizing the communities within the buildings, with people moving in an out all the time. Additionally, many of these homeless families are not getting the proper services they need (or not enough of them) furher destabalizing the community with illegal drug activity and mental health concerns that are not being properly treated.

This program was supposed to be an alternative to crowding the shelters, BUT it has turned into a nothing more than a lucrative business, with middle-men and brokers who are all getting a nice cut.

This faulty program is a huge expense on taxpayers and a huge DISERVICE to the homeless families, neighborhood residents and to NYC in general. Too bad I didnt get to ask the commissioner to talk about this program, eh!

Do you count the summertime AnarKids (def: the kids from Greenwhich CT who come down and live on the the street and have a few grand of tattoos, piercings and pedigree pitbulls)?

Regarding the trains, the homeless go on the lines where they will be hassled the least.

Brian, that guy calling in saying he came out from CA and is homeless, did you inquire as to his situation or did you assume that he's just some normal guy who came out on a job hunt and couldn't pull it off? I'll bet he's got some problems going on.

Do you count the summertime AnarKids (def: the kids from Greenwhich CT who come down and live on the the street and have a few grand of tattoos, piercings and pedigree pitbulls)?

Regarding the trains, the homeless go on the lines where they will be hassled the least.

According to Curtis Sliwa of the Guardian Angels, homeless people prefer the "E" train because its entire route is underground thus it is one of the warmer trains.

Maybe the homeless ride trains that had long runs so it increases the time between end of line hassles and because of safety. I have noticed the N line has a lot more homeless on it too lately (i ride it everyday). Its a long run and goes through fairly safe neighborhoods.

Can you talk a little about preventing homelessness? I have a friend, a professional engineer, who's been recently disabled by chronic fatigue syndrome. He's about to lose everything. he's been trying to use the social services system and has been lost in the whirl of it.

what about the couple that have been living in the 207th st A station for over a year, with the blessing of the MTA employees? I've never seen anyone encourage them to leave, and they have pretty much taken over one of the two benches there.

How about the guys with large plastic jugs set up on card tables to collect money for the United Homeless Organization? What a joke!

OK! Some hard stats!

So, if I heard correctly and there was a 50% increase in homeless families.... can we talk cause and effect? Where's the increase coming from? It's great that they've found shelter, but, that's no long term solution... and did Bloomberg's real estate fest contribute to these people losing their apartments?

A shelter run by Trinity Church & the City on Beaver Street (Financial District) closed last year. Was this service relocated or was it removed permanently?

People continue to show up there looking for this service & often wait there too. The temporary sign on the door has long since disappeared.

What changes have been made to target the chronically homeless population (also consisting of many individiuals w/ mental illness)? What are the numbers on this population since 2004? Are they shrinking?

Oh, OK, so you just mentioned some numbers... how about this question: are homeless people just moving to the outer boroughs/outside the city as they are rousted and hustled out of the busier areas of the city? Are there stats on increases in surrounding areas?

What are you doing about the fake homeless scams we see all over this city? In my neighborhood, 79th & Broadway, we have at least two individuals who have been hanging out for years with cardboard signs saying they are homeless. I have spoken to each of them - they are not homeless, and each collect hundreds of dollars daily. I understand the police cannot stop these folks if they don't approach passersby, etc. How can we "out" fake homeless scammers so that they stop siphoning funds from the poor?

Wait... what are the basics again?

Are there more or less homeless people now compared to years past?

Mr. Hess,
Can you shed some light on the main reason many of these homeless people refue shelter when offered. Or is this not the case.

Homeless people need an address! When they apply for services, they can be turned down for simply not having an address to have documents mailed to! Government rules so the Gov't should provide a certain number of P O Boxes for the homeless, BEFORE their address becomes the church steps!

last week you interviewed a homeless man who described the unsafe conditions in the men's shelter, wouldn't addressing that problem help? i'd be terrified to enter a shelter.

Thank god our efforts to get rid off poor people from manhattan... excellent progress...

Perhaps the first thing to be done is to get an accurate count of the homeless population by doing the count in warmer weather -- when the numbers will not be artificially depressed because of bitter cold and snow.