A Team Effort to Help the Homeless in New York City A Team Effort to Help the Homeless in New York City

(Anc): Nearly one in a hundred people in New York City are experiencing homelessness right now. Reporter Nicole Aponte reports now on why the COVID-19 pandemic has left an ever-growing number of people without a home in New York City, and where extra help may be coming from.

(Nicole): If you’re walking the streets of the Big Apple, or taking the subway. You can’t help but notice more and more people filling the streets like never before.

(Aaron Jiove): “A lot of bad stuff out there. You want to talk about that?

(Nicole): The people we’re talking about – don’t have a home. Nationwide, the country has seen more people evicted and forced out of their homes the past two years because of the pandemic. New York City is no exception.

(Father Mike Lopez): “We see the same faces for the past 20 months. the need is actually still here and super real.”

(Nicole): The Hungry Monk, a non-profit in the city , has fed those in need since 2017. Father Mike Lopez, the executive director of the program, says the outreach expanded during the pandemic like never before.

(Father Mike Lopez): “Operation of volunteers driving and delivering meals to people who were shut in because they have COVID. We participated with Rethink Food and their ‘Food for Heroes” Initiative where they would deliver meals to the hospitals for the front-line workers. We really went from a 200 family-a-week to 10,000 family-a-week operation in a matter of a month.

(Nicole): But the organization’s main focus is feeding the homeless. 70,000 people are now with no home in N-Y-C. 5,000 of them experience homelessness out on the street with nowhere to go. Father Mike has made it his mission to provide a home-like atmosphere for those people.

(Father Mike Lopez): “Everybody jokes like I’m the dad and everybody’s my kids. And I feel that way. I think about both of the people that come on the pantry line and the people who volunteer here. We have about 150 volunteers or so. They belong to me, and I have to be here for them, so I’m still here.

(Nicole): The non-profit employs people who are homeless themselves, like Aaron Jiove. He’s been on the streets for 11 years.

(Aaron Jiove): “Being outside and not being able to go inside whenever you want to. Having to beg for money everyday”

(Nicole): The same goes for Guilibaldo Aviles, a man whose life changed drastically as soon as the non-profit welcomed him with open arms.

(Father Mike Lopez & Guilibaldo Aviles): “When we found you where were you? In the street. You remember where? Under the bridge. Under the bridge in Astoria, yes. How is your life since you’re here? Now, I’m feeling good.”

(Nicole): Jiove says this non-profit does more than any City- sponsored program ever could.

(Aaron Jiove): “Is this more helpful than the services the city provides? Way more helpful to me honestly, yeah. Because everything else is more of a process. You got to wait, and wait, and wait. Here, you come here, get food. You gotta wait for nothing here.

(Nicole): The HungryMonk fed close to 10-thousand families weekly during the worst of the pandemic. Now that number sits at two-thousand families per week. Department of Homeless Services in N-Y-C Spokesperson Isaac McGinnin says the department is proud of the number of people they’ve been serving.

(Isaac McGinnin): “Expanded size of outreach teams, new cites and new tools, we have helped more than 4200 New Yorkers who are living unsheltered come in off the streets.”

(Nicole): The assistance to the homeless in New York is a team effort. the city depends on the non-profits to provide help to those the city can’t reach.

(Isaac McGinnin): “Our relationship with not for profits is vast and vital and only sort-of together are we addressing the problem of homelessness. They have been sort of incubators for innovative ideas over the past several decades.

(Nicole): But Father Mike from the HungryMonk knows there is only so much the city itself can do for those people.

(Father Mike Lopez): “So we’re really proud on how we do it, I wish the city would listen to us and let us take on the entirety of the street homeless in New York City. Unfortunately, they think they have the best answers, but looking at their statistics, they just don’t.

(Nicole): The help the city provides is often avoided by those living on the streets. Retired N-Y-P-D officer Mary Donnelly saw this during her 20 years in the service. Many homeless people refuse any of the help offered by the city — out of fear.

(Mary Donnelly): “Had many of contacts with homeless people throughout the years. And 99.9% of the time you ask them if they want help or to go to a shelter, they say no. They think the shelter is too dangerous and most of the times it is.”

(Nicole); After working and growing up in the city, Donnelly’s seen a drastic increase in the amount of homeless people lining the streets.

(Mary Donnelly): “It’s heart-breaking because it could be you. It could be your kid. It could be your family. So, I always took the approach of that could be someone I know, or someone in my family and I would want somebody to help them.”

(Nicole): Even though there are so many people left without homes right now, Father Mike from the HungryMonk, says the problem could be completely solved – but it will take help from more than just the city and nonprofits.

(Father Mike Lopez): “If everybody was focused on taking care of the people around them on a hyperlocal level, then we would be okay.”

(Nicole): But many people don’t want to think about the homeless. They actively try to avoid them while walking the streets. So a community solution doesn’t seem likely. Studies show people without homes die 30 years sooner than people with housing, and they are 3-4 times likelier to die. For now, the city continues to reach out to help as many of the homeless as it can -and non-profits extend their reach to the homeless even further – because they each believe that no one should live – or die – homeless.

Reporting in New York City, I’m Nicole Aponte.