Local complaints about the homeless on the increase

As, citywide, the debate is raging about whether current city policies are fueling an increase in homeless, Bay Ridge has seen an increase in quality-of-life complaints directly related to those sleeping on the streets.

“I can safely say that residents have noticed a more visible presence of homeless in the district,” said Community Board 10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann, noting that the majority of complaints come from residents living near some of the nabe’s triangle parks and also telling this paper that, recently, there has been an uptick in complaints about panhandling.

According to an interactive map mocked up by The Gothamist, areas like Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights have seen a zero to 50 percent increase in 311 calls while areas like Bensonhurst have seen a 100 to 200 percent increase.

While complaints have certainly been on the rise, Beckmann urged residents to remember that these increases – while seemingly dramatic when expressed in percentages – don’t always point to a high number of complaints.

According to the map, the west end of Bensonhurst saw 12 calls to 311 regarding the homeless in 2015, up from six in 2014. Similarly, the area containing Dyker Beach Park – painted red on the map to portray a more than 200 percent increase – went from one call in 2014 to seven in 2015.

Bay Ridge clocked in 24 calls related to homelessness in 2014, and 36 in 2015.

“In the past two months, we have definitely seen an increase in complaints to the board,” said Beckmann who works with shelter service Common Ground to help address Bay Ridge’s homeless population. “It’s still not a high number but it is an increase, and that’s always important to look at.”

Such anecdotal evidence may be the best evidence available is to substantiate changes in the number of homeless people across the city. While the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) does an annual count of the homeless population on one evening each winter, in 2015, the citywide total of homeless counted on that occasion was 3,182, with 249 homeless people counted in Brooklyn, a far cry from the roughly 60,000 homeless people on the streets and in shelters in New York City according to the not-for-profit Coalition for the Homeless. No numbers regarding specific areas were forthcoming from the city.

There may be some change coming. The NYPD is currently mapping homeless encampments – as opposed to individual homeless people — according to Police Commissioner William Bratton who on Monday, September 14 shut down rumors that the Police Department will start tracking an alleged spike in the homeless population with a program similar to CompStat.

The idea is to reach out a helping hand, said a police source. “We send them to a hospital if they need help, and try to get the Homeless Outreach Program and the Department of Mental Health involved,” said the source of the NYPD’s current protocol. “We’re not trying to take enforcement; we’re not arresting them.”

Beckmann and the police source agreed that some of the local problem areas include the Tom McDonald Triangle, McKinley Park, Steadman Square, J.J. Carty Park, Pigeon Park, Cannonball Park, the 69^th Street Pier under the overpass and Leif Ericson Park under the Bay Ridge Towers.

“There are definitely a lot of encampments in this district,” Beckmann said, citing 62^nd Street from Eighth Avenue to 14th Avenue, along the train tracks, as one of the largest.

Furthermore, Beckmann said, the homeless have spread to the avenues, many of them spending nights on Third and Fifth Avenue city benches.

“We just want to get them the help that they need,” Beckmann said, “and, at the end of the day, it is a quality-of-life issue here.”

Additional reporting contributed by Helen Klein