How does the local government address homelessness in New York City, and how do their policies affect the homeless population?

So far, I have found a lot of sources that directly address my topic question. Most of them are newspaper articles and scholarly articles. I used the CUNY Academic Database to find my scholarly articles. I used google’s search engine to find my newspaper articles. Because my topic for our first essay relates to my current topic, I was fortunately able to reuse one source from that assignment. The sources I have found are published on reputable platforms, like the New York Times or Maternal and Child Health Journal (scholarly journal). Some sources describe a policy/policies that exists in New York City which then affects our homeless population. The other sources provide statistical data regarding our homeless populations, and various necessary definitions.

One source I found while doing research but am not sure about is Characteristics of Mothers and Infants Living in Homeless Shelters and Public Housing in New York City. This source has a lot of helpful and relevant statistics and information. This source was also found using the CUNY Academic Database and is a scholarly article. This source mentions different services offered to homeless women and children, but not necessarily how the services itself affect them. They mostly include this information to shed awareness on the amount of homeless people who used the services and compare that number with mothers and children living in NYCHA buildings. However, I do learn about the many health disparities that plague our homeless mother population. I also learn that when a baby is born to a homeless woman, Medicaid is used to pay the hospital for the delivery. This shows that the government issues Medicaid to the homeless, and the homeless can use Medicaid to help with hospital costs. Homeless women often go to clinics for prenatal care. Clinics tend to be free or low cost to those who do not have healthcare. Clinics are also implemented by the government. As I read into this source more, I realize I can definitely use the information for my essay. I was unsure was because this article did not explicitly state “this policy exists in order to do this and affects the homeless like this”, I had to connect the dots on my own.

One source I found that I discarded was actually from my previous essay, www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10911359.2012.707941. I decided to discard this source because the statistics are not specific to New York City. I will find other scholarly articles that fit better with my essay. I remember when brainstorming, I thought of using TikTok videos made by homeless people as a popular media source. Now that I have a definite topic, I am not sure how using a TikTok video would be effective for my essay. For example, there is this account I follow by a homeless woman named Bugs. However, I realize she does not live in New York City. My topic question is specific to the happenings of New York City. I remember I follow a homeless man on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/mauriceboldenphotography/, I see him often in Harlem. When looking through his profile, I realized he documents his lifestyle as a homeless person, but there is nothing about policies or how the government treats him as a homeless person. Because I want a testimonial from a homeless person, but so far do not feel what I have come across is sufficient, I thought of visiting https://www.instagram.com/humansofny/ on Instagram. This person documents words from homeless people, maybe I can find evidence here. It is time-consuming to scroll through the account, so I may decide to keep searching google instead. My plan is to find more scholarly articles. I also want to intentionally include policies that both negatively and positively affect the homeless, and I believe the sources I have so far do just that.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Hu, Winnie. “’Hostile Architecture’: How Public Spaces Keep the Public Out.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Nov. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/nyregion/hostile-architecture-nyc.html. 

“Homelessness & Poverty in New York City.” The Bowery Mission. Rebuilding Lives Since 1879., Oct. 2020, www.bowery.org/homelessness/. 

Hennelly, Bob. “How New York’s Programs and Policies Are Keeping the Homeless on the Street.” CSNY, 8 Mar. 2020, www.cityandstateny.com/articles/policy/housing/how-new-yorks-programs-and-policies-are-keeping-homeless-street.html. 

Ricciulli, Valeria. “Housing, Rental Vouchers, Outreach: Can NYC Fix Its Homeless Crisis?” Curbed NY, Curbed NY, 25 Feb. 2020, ny.curbed.com/2020/2/25/21146143/homelessness-new-york-city-how-to-fix. 

Reilly, Kathleen H., et al. “Characteristics of Mothers and Infants Living in Homeless Shelters and Public Housing in New York City.” Gale Academic Onefile, Springer, May 2019, go-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ps/i.do?p=AONE. 

Sommer, Marni, et al. “Menstruation and Homelessness: Challenges Faced Living in Shelters and on the Street in New York City.” ScienceDirect, Elsevier, 25 Sept. 2020, www-sciencedirect-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/science/article/pii/S1353829220310923. 

Semuels, Alana. “How Can the U.S. End Homelessness?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 25 Apr. 2016, www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/end-homelessness-us/479115/. 

Mckinley, Jesse, and Vivian Yee. “Questions Over Cuomo’s Order on Homelessness.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Jan. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/01/05/nyregion/questions-over-cuomos-order-on-homelessness.html.