[NEWS] What Other Cities Can Teach New York About Homelessness on Transit
The New York Times recently took a look at several big city transit systems and how they approach homelessness, including Philadelphia and our Hub of Hope. An excerpt from the piece:
In Philadelphia, Suburban Station sits in the middle of SEPTA’s network of subways and commuter trains and has long been a gathering place for “hundreds of vulnerable people” daily, said the transit agency’s police chief, Thomas J. Nestel III.
In the past, SEPTA police officers would typically enter the station and chase homeless people out. People would return, and the cycle would repeat, Chief Nestel said.
In 2018, SEPTA — which before the pandemic averaged about a million trips per day across buses, subways, trolleys and regional rail — turned over an 11,000-square-foot space in a concourse below the station to Project HOME, a nonprofit that helps homeless people.
The group converted the space to a drop-in center that offers temporary shelter, medical services, access to restrooms and laundry and help finding housing.
