Why New York’s Subway Outreach Teams Can’t Solve a Crisis Rooted in Housing Scarcity
Last month, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that 6,100 people living inside the city’s subway system were provided “tailored support” last year. During the same timeframe, outreach teams made more than 20,000 contacts with people sheltering in the subway system.
“That could be a hot meal, a bed for the night, or a hospital evaluation if they seem at risk of harming themselves or others,” Adams said during a press conference.
These interactions took place under a relatively new initiative called Partnership Assistance for Transit Homelessness (PATH). The program deploys teams made up of NYPD officers, mental health professionals, and outreach workers to offer services such as shelter referrals, medical evaluations, and social support.
City officials have emphasized that the goal is to connect people with the care they need. Outreach workers say repeated contact and trust-building are essential, yet they note that shelter conditions and past negative experiences can make people hesitant to accept services.
PATH collaborates with Governor Kathy Hochul’s Subway Safety Plan, which, according to state reports, has helped approximately 8,600 people transition out of the subway system and into shelters since its launch. Roughly 1,000 people have also transitioned into permanent or supportive housing arrangements, according to state reports. However, a “placement” can include stays in temporary shelters, and permanent housing outcomes remain limited in comparison to the scale of need.
Counting the Number of People Underground Remains Difficult
These numbers describe different things and are measured in different ways, which can make them difficult to compare.
New York City’s annual HOPE Count—a one-night survey conducted during the coldest period of the year—estimated 4,140 people living unsheltered across the city last year. These numbers differ significantly from those announced by Mayor Adams this month.
However, advocates warn that this figure likely represents only a portion of the actual number.
David Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, describes the HOPE count’s methodology as so narrow that it is “meaningless” when attempting to understand the scale of unsheltered homelessness.
People move frequently, avoid exposure, and may stay in transit systems or hidden areas where they are unlikely to be counted. In other words, we cannot say with certainty how many New Yorkers are sleeping on trains, on sidewalks, or in encampments—only that the need is significant and ongoing.
The Question of Trust in Outreach
For many people experiencing homelessness, trust is the first barrier to accepting services. Outreach workers who specialize in long-term engagement caution that involving police in outreach can complicate trust-building, particularly for individuals who have experienced sweeps, arrests, or forced relocations.
Organizations like BronxWorks intentionally avoid pairing outreach workers with police during engagements. Instead, their teams include Peer Specialists—people with lived experience of homelessness who can connect more directly with those they serve.
“A lot of times it’s helpful because they can relate in some way or another to a client. Whereas sometimes they might look at a social worker and say, ‘What do you know?‘,” Olivia Cooley, Program Director at BronxWorks, told AMNY. “So, it’s really helpful to have peers on the team.”
Housing First research consistently supports this approach: people respond better to support when they feel safe, respected, and understood.
Public Fear, Crime Narratives, and Policy Pressure
Concerns about subway safety in New York City have risen since the pandemic, according to recent polling. But while public anxiety is real, research consistently shows that people experiencing homelessness are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators. Despite this, fear-based narratives that link homelessness to crime have increasingly shaped policy and political messaging across New York City.
Isolated high-profile crimes involving individuals who are homeless and living with untreated trauma tend to receive intense media coverage, even though research shows these cases are not representative. In many of these incidents, the most relevant factors are a history of untreated mental health needs and past criminalization, not a person’s housing status. This distinction often gets lost in public debate, where homelessness and violence are frequently — and inaccurately — linked.
Meanwhile, the structural contributors to homelessness—high rents, low wages, a lack of psychiatric beds, and limited permanent housing options—receive far less.
This dynamic fuels public pressure for visible action, even when the most visible actions—police patrols, sweeps, and displacement from subway stations—do not meaningfully reduce homelessness and make it harder for outreach workers to build trust.
As City Hall and Albany promote enforcement-led outreach, housing remains the missing piece. PATH teams can offer short-term support, but they cannot substitute for long-term, affordable housing, which is what enables people to stabilize, recover, and rebuild.
At recent press events, both Mayor Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul have framed these policies as compassionate responses to crisis, emphasizing the need to “get people care.” But this framing risks obscuring a deeper question: Why are tens of thousands of New Yorkers spending months or years cycling through shelters without a viable path to permanent housing?
An Ongoing Fight Against Misinformation
Public conversations about homelessness are often shaped by fear, headlines, and political messaging rather than evidence. That makes it even more important to ground our understanding in the facts.
In New York City, the majority of people experiencing homelessness are families with children, not individuals on trains or in subway stations. The primary drivers of homelessness are high rents and low wages, not personal failure. Stability begins with a home. Only when someone has a safe place to sleep, store medication, keep their belongings, and prepare food can they begin to address other needs such as health, employment, or recovery.
On October 27, more than 85,000 people were in New York City’s shelter system, including 57,000 family members. Thousands more slept on trains or outdoors because they could not access a shelter bed that felt safe or suitable.
Programs like PATH may offer short-term support, but they cannot substitute for housing. Outreach may open the door to conversation, but only housing ends homelessness.
A city that truly values safety, dignity, and care for all its residents must invest in solutions proven to reduce homelessness: deeply affordable housing, supportive services, and policies that enable people to remain in their communities rather than being displaced.