Transit Strike Leaves NYC Homeless in Cold

"I feel like a normal person, not a bum," he said Wednesday after wandering into Penn Station seeking warmth.

Homeless advocates and city officials say the walkout that has closed the nation's largest transit system has also potentially displaced hundreds of homeless people who use the subway's trains, stations and tunnels for shelter, especially during winter.

"A lot of people sleep on the trains in the cold weather," said Patrick Markee of the Coalition for the Homeless. "It's a survival tactic, so it's a concern when the trains are shut down."

A citywide census of the homeless taken in February 2004 found an estimated 4,395 people living on the streets. Manhattan had the largest population at 1,805. The next largest group, 845 people, was found in the subway system.

Where all the subway dwellers have gone is unclear. The city has seen only a slight increase in the number of people checking into homeless shelters since bus and subway workers walked off the job.

But, as of Wednesday morning, a police homeless outreach unit had taken 71 people to shelters—more than 10 times the usual count.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said many of those were people first encountered by officers as authorities secured the vacated subway system against vandalism and sabotage. Roughly one-third of the system's 468 stations have been locked up; the rest were being patrolled around-the-clock by roughly 800 uniformed patrol officers.

Homeless advocates predicted that if the strike drags on, more people will turn to the city for shelter and other help.

The strike "is having a disproportionate impact on the 1-in-5 New Yorkers who are poor, including the homeless," the homeless coalition said in a statement. "We urge the transit authority to reach a swift settlement with its workers."

The city Department of Homeless Services believes the shelter system "is well prepared to accommodate increased demand during the strike and throughout the winter," spokeswoman Angela Allen said.

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Associated Press Writer Pat Milton contributed to this report.

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