As of January 2019, an all-time record 63,839 men, women, and children slept in New York City shelters each night.
Bill de Blasio, Mayor of NYC, has doubled down on an effort to help curb homelessness in New York, but people in communities across the city are loudly voicing opposition to the installation of new shelters.
As a student double majoring in Psychology and Media and communications, this brings to awareness that homelessness is a concurring issue in NYC. The psychological health of these homeless individuals are at stake due to feelings of hopelessness and despair. To prevent this, non-for-profit organisations should intervene to provide support for them.
One current example of an activation is Coalition for the Homeless in New York City. This 35 year-old organisation offers volunteer programs that aid in finding housing, frontline services to more than 10,000 homeless and at risk men, women and children per year, job training to the homeless. Each night, 1,000 people living on the rough streets of the city who would otherwise go hungry, are served a hot nutritious meal every night of the year.
With other individuals studying the same disciplines as me, we can form counselling services and form a partnership with such organisations in New York to bring international engagement.
I am lucky to have came from a fortunate family to send me overseas to study and to have grown up in a safe country of Singapore. Although homelessness may not be such a prominent issue back home, it is not a small issue in other cities as I have come across even in Melbourne CBD. It should not be ignored or taken with a pinch of salt. Instead, we start by taking something about it.
NYC is not just all about the glorious unending night life. There are bigger problems in the world than the need to Instagram a selfie. To be a useful media and communications student, a post about the homeless in social media too can spread awareness and help make a change.
#ClaudtravelsNYC 