Volunteer outreach group tells Manhattan CB2 it placed or referred 1,029 people, cites transportation and coordination gaps with DHS

Manhattan Community Board 2Human Services Committee members on Oct. 30 heard from the Street Homeless Advocacy Project (SHAP), which said its volunteer outreach teams have made 2,118 contacts and "placed or referred voluntarily" 1,029 people to safe havens, stabilization and mental-health programs, drug-treatment programs and job training over a little more than three years.

"Trust is the most important thing," said Norman Siegel, a civil-rights lawyer and organizer with SHAP, summarizing the group's model of repeated, predictable visits by small volunteer teams that attempt to build relationships and offer low-barrier entry to safe havens rather than immediate placement in congregate shelters.

Why it matters: SHAP's presentation highlighted two system-level bottlenecks that the group says reduce acceptance of placements: (1) delays and inconsistencies when outreach teams call the Department of Homeless Services' Joint Command Center (JCC) to verify vacancies and request transportation, and (2) a shortage of geographically convenient safe havens that would allow people to accept placement without being sent far from their neighborhood.

SHAP volunteers described a process in which an outreach worker confirms a person's name and date of birth, calls the JCC to see available vacancies, and requests transportation. SHAP leaders said the JCC sometimes takes 10to60 minutes or longer to complete a lookup and that transportation does not always arrive when promised, and that spotty transportation has led volunteers to pay for taxis to ensure a person reaches a placement. "Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't work," Siegel said.

The committee heard details about SHAP's scale and methods: the group operates roughly seven outreach locations (mostly in Manhattan, with occasional coverage in Queens), runs weekly shifts Monday through Thursday, and relies on about 100 volunteers. SHAP said it is an unincorporated association that does not accept public funding and that many volunteers are students from CUNY, Hunter, Baruch and other campuses.

SHAP described placement outcomes and trends: the organizers said early in the program about one in three contacts resulted in placement; in later years the ratio improved to roughly one in two, and in recent weeks SHAP reported two in three. For Washington Square Park specifically, SHAP estimated a placement rate of about 37to38 percent over the past year. SHAP also tracks referrals that are not immediate placements; of 166 cases recorded in one recent sample, 23 (about 14 percent) were categorized as referrals to services such as drug or mental-health treatment.

Committee members and presenters discussed safe-haven capacity and retention. SHAP noted that the district has one named safe haven, Paul's Place on 14th Street, with about 20 beds, and that safe havens generally show higher long-term stay rates than congregate shelters. Siegel described an advocacy proposal created with pro bono counsel to use temporarily vacant hotels for housing via eminent domain and supportive services; he said the idea received interest from the mayor's office but did not move forward.

Mental-health and substance-use issues were a recurring topic. Presenters said many unsheltered people have co-occurring needs but that only a small share appear to meet standards for involuntary commitment. Siegel said an effective voluntary program helps identify who may later require involuntary care and warned that community mental-health services remain scarce.

SHAP reported that it collects metrics via a phone-based form, issues weekly and annual reports and shares its data with city agencies, though organizers said the city does not always provide clear confirmations when people travel to placements independently. SHAP leaders described informal coordination with city and nonprofit outreach teams at forums such as the Village Interagency Task Force (VITF) and said they sometimes call caseworkers when a known client's whereabouts are observed.

Volunteers and committee members discussed training, coordination and continuity. SHAP leaders said they do informal coordination with contracted outreach teams but have resisted formalizing some relationships that would undermine trust (for example, wearing city-branded shirts or working directly with police). Volunteers with lived experience of homelessness are part of SHAP's teams and are cited as effective in building trust.

SHAP asked community-board members to consider several near-term and systemic actions: advocate for more safe-haven capacity close to neighborhoods, push DHS for reliable transportation when placements are accepted, insist on better operational data-sharing from the JCC, and consider supporting pilot programs to convert unused hotels into supportive housing while attaching day programming and services.

"If we could get community boards citywide to be part of this, it would help," Siegel said, arguing that community boards can be a pressure point for systemic change. Volunteer Kiki, who said she helps with outreach and communications, urged board members to try a night of outreach and to use SHAP's online contact form to request presentations or assistance.

There were no formal votes or committee actions recorded during the presentation; members thanked SHAP staff and volunteers and indicated interest in follow-up on coordination, transportation logistics and advocacy around safe-haven capacity.