that shows hundreds of images of homeless people sleeping or asking for money. as of thursday afternoon, however, the photos were no longer fizzablong er visible to the public. the reason was a technical glitch. however, the new york daily news reported yesterday that fl f flickr took down the photos. 56,000 individuals including adults and children were housed in homeless shelters on thursday. the mayor s office told us told this show by e-mail that the number of homeless new yorkers has dropped from approximately 59,000 in 2014 to approximately 56,000 today. and yet other reports say the number of homeless has actually gone up. in fact, in recent years, homelessness in new york city has reached its highest level since the great depression of the 1930s according to the coalition for the homeless. in a quinnipiac poll released
last week, 53% of new yorkers reported seeing more homeless people than they did a few years ago. facing mounting pressure to reduce and serve the homeless population, mayor de blasio unveiled a $22 million plan to help new yorkers suffering from mental illness. the initiative nyc safe proposes more services for the homeless who pose a danger to themselves and others. but what happens if the homeless become just another prop in the ongoing drama between the mayor and the police? joining the table now is christie hart, executive director of hopeless services united. thank you for being here. i want to start by asking you, what is your response to hearing the characterization of homeless people in this callout by the sba saying take pictures of people urinating in public and doing open air drug activity, is this a stereotyping of homeless people you are bothered by? absolutely. when i heard this, it was clear this was a publicity stunt designed to shame the mayor and
what we need is affordable housing for this particular population on the street. cornell, it does feel like, to christie s point, attempting to shame the mayor but actually shaming the homeless. on the shame the mayor part of it, even the title peek-a-boo we see you, too, sounds like a response to even citizens filming police. am i read that go wrong? exactly. to me this is emblematic of bad policing, right, in the sense of we have these quality of life crimes criminalizing a class of people, a kind of hard-hearted jell-o brained approach to policing that has nothing to do with deterring crime. and to use the citizens of new york, because homeless people are still citizens, they re using the citizens of new york as a prop to go after the mayor is absolutely shameless. so they are not, in fact, shaming the homeless. they re shaming themselves, their badges, their oaths and