Wednesday—At night the streets are dark. Streetlights scantily litter the sidewalks. But as you come upon 346 Powers Ave, in the Bronx, a lighted path comes into view, literally.
PATH—or the Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing—is an EAU: an Emergency Assessment Unit, under the DHS, or Department of Homeless Services. Here DHS Officers and Employees take care of a difficult task: trying to help homeless families get homes. But it’s not easy.
Walking into the large stone building, the first thing a family encounters in the brightly lit building is not warm meals and blankets, but metal detectors, though some would consider it a necessity. “It’d different. Every day it’s different,” says Masullo, a DHS Officer. “Never know what you’re going to get.”
“We have to check for contraband and weapons,” says fellow-officer Gonzalez as she checks the screen of an incoming client’s bag. “All bags must go through—if they beep, they get checked.” And while some may think this is a trivial step, others would disagree.
“When I was at the Men’s Shelter by Bellvue Hospital, a man tried to come in with a machete,” says Officer Petersen, a long time employee of the DHS. “Had it up the sleeve of his jacket.”
After passing the metal detectors, families reach the Processing Stage where they must put in their information and the reasons behind their homelessness, leading to a temporary overnight stay while an investigation is made on the client’s claims. After moving to Reception, more information is needed to prepare the family for the Family Worker, who gives the family a medical check. Employees of the Diversion Department try to see whether there are other ways for families to go without staying in the shelter system, but if things are approved the family is given a temporary housing in a ten day placement. If found eligible, the family will be guided to a Tier 2 Housing: an apartment for their family. But, if found ineligible according to varying circumstances, the family may have to start the process all over again.
“It’s disgusting,” says one client, shifting side to side in frustration besides her friend. “I was just arguing with him on how f***ed up it is,” she adds. “If we did have no place to go, I wouldn’t be here.” In addition, guidelines and rules are constantly changing. “A lot of people mess it up for others,” says Petersen of the system at PATH. “One client can do something bad and it changes everything for everybody else.”
Naturally, the process can cause tension between employees and clients. “I don’t like working here,” says one DHS employee. “These guys are assholes. They make us feel like it’s us…our fault. But it comes from up high. They’re the ones maneuvering everybody.” Often, tempers will escalate to the point of confrontation; other times the DHS officers find themselves dealing with all sorts of situations. “It’s more than just police work,” says Masullo as he keeps his eyes on the clients entering the building. “We’re translators, babysitters, referees…everything.”
Sometimes officers find their only solace in each other. “Working with Petersen is a blessing and a privilege,” says Towns, another of the DHS employees. “We’ve been working together for over 10 years…working here when it was a men’s shelter. It was peaceful!”
But perhaps the persons most caught in the troubles of the shelter system are children. “They’re missing out on school cuz they have to be here,” says one client, “that’s an ACS case but what can you do?”
“It’s the worst on kids,” another officer adds. “She can be at the end of her 10 day placement period, and it can be 11 at night, and she can have kids; and they have to get them out, instead of waiting till morning.” In addition, families may find that while all they want is a warm place to stay, they often times may be in for a trip. “The process of [the kids] going back and forth, the kids being shuffled around; they might be in the Bronx, they might be in Brooklyn, y’know? It’s hard,” the officer adds.
And what’s to blame?
“The rents are ridiculous,” says Petersen. “The high cost of rent is what a lot of people come here for. What makes it bad is that Guiliani had changed it all: all boroughs had EAUs, but he converged them all into one, this one, and made it more hectic. That’s why a lot of kids are displaced out of school. If they had an EAU in each borough, it’d be better.”
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5 comments:
I think you should reword your lead, like saying "Its Wednesday night in the Bronx, the street lights scantily liter the sidewalks. Then a lighted path appears....
The structure was really good, it was like some pros and some cons, very objective, but at the same time you should ask an outsider who lives in the area about the program, or just the reaction of those in the neighborhood having homeless people gather in this one area.
I like how you ended with a probable cause to this issue, it make me think that this guy was mayor god knows how long, any everyone remembers him as this great man from 9/11, but he messed up peoples lives before that.
I didn't really your lead statement but after i found out what was the subject then I was able to get into the article. I enjoy how detail your about the process that the homeless must go through. You were able to turn image of the homeless getting warm bed to sleep on to a image of how they still have have to struggle to get a place to stay. I also like how you were able to show how frustrated the worker were with the homeless.
I did enjoy reading your story, it did make it's point.
Some things that I would fix are:
you do not need to say "literally".
There are too many abbreviations in the second paragraph, try to spell out the words first and then if you must follow them with the abbreviation in parenthesis.
Also try to use the full names, if you have them.
And did the person say "did have no"
or "did have a" the difference changes the meaning of the sentence, and if she did say "did have no" place [sic] afterwards to ensure that readers know that the bad grammar is intentional.
Other than that, good job.
This is a good start Masoud. Don't use the second peson-- "you" though. Just write what you saw. You need to move the part about the consolidation of the shelters under Guliani higher up. After the paragraph that starts "it's not easy." You also need more sources . . . clients specifically. And you need to transition between the employees more smoothly. They run together. See my comments on Amanda's story. Also, some of the quotes are very specific and technical, and although this is good, you need to provide a context for them. Particularly the ones regarding the children.
This was a great story. Your lead was very creative. The sources you used in your story kept your article interesting, but you should use their whole names. At the end of the article, you write about how hard it is for the homeless children. I think you should place that subject further in the beginning of your story because I thought it was very important. I would have also liked to see a quote from one of the homeless people that go there. Moreover, I didn't really find many grammatical errors. You just had some missing words in some of your sentences and you should use the word "because" instead of "cuz" in paragraph ten.
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