New York Subway Becomes Homeless Shelter

During the Covid-19 lockdown, New York’s subways are supposed to be a primary mode of transportation for people working in hospitals, grocery stores and other essential services.  But as reported by CBS New York,  nurses taking the subway to work are sharing the cars with dozens of passed out homeless and shopping carts filled with garbage.  “There is an astronomical amount of homeless people now in the subway,” one conductor told reporters.

With fewer trains running, and an apparent moratorium on arrests for vagrancy and fare beating, the conductor said “The trash, the feces, the urine is there.  It’s just a very toxic unsafe environment.”  Fears about the vagrants transmitting Covid-19 to legitimate passengers and transit workers sparked the head of the MTA, Sarah Feinberg, to encourage Mayor de Blasio to take more aggressive action to clear out the homeless.  The Mayor responded that the police have already been doing so, but if there is a problem, “I don’t know why she hasn’t called me.”  Transit sources report that Feinberg has repeatedly asked for a meeting with de Blasio with no success.  So far 50 transit workers have died from the virus.