Homelessness, aggressive panhandling a problem at Penn Station, commuters say

LIRR commuters are pleading with MTA and law enforcement officials to address what they say has been a troubling rise in homelessness, aggressive panhandling, drug use and emotionally disturbed people at Penn Station over the last year.

Commuters and advocates say the COVID-19 pandemic, extensive construction work inside Penn, and ineffective policing and homeless outreach strategies have combined to create a particularly unpleasant and, often, unsafe atmosphere at the Long Island Rail Road’s Manhattan hub.

Passengers, in interviews with Newsday, give accounts of regularly being accosted by screaming panhandlers demanding money, witnessing drug use and drug deals, and having to sidestep individuals and their belongings. All this while rushing to catch a train at the busy station, through which 650,000 people passed annually before the pandemic.

"It's never been this bad," said 30-year LIRR customer Sheryl Mofson, of Bayside, who said the problem has added a "whole other layer of stress" on an already challenging commute.

"They’ll come up to you and say, ‘Give me five dollars for food,’ or ‘Give me a ride on your MetroCard.’ It’s not, ‘Do you have any spare change?’ " Mofson said. "It’s just a free-for-all, and the homeless have free rein."

Sea Cliff commuter Tracy DiStefano agreed that the situation at Penn is more dire than at any time over the 26 years she’s been riding the railroad. She recently witnessed a woman "screaming in this man’s face to give her ‘some [expletive] money.’ " Another erratic panhandler ran toward her at "full speed" recently, she said.

"I kind of ducked out of the way and screamed, ‘No!’ and he ran away. But it immediately brought me to tears that this is part of my daily commute," DiStefano said. "It’s just wild. People are buying drugs, lying on their faces right outside of Penn Station because they're so out of it … and shooting up. It’s really awful. I don’t know if I can do it anymore."

Officials with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the LIRR and the six subway lines running through Penn, have acknowledged the rise in homeless people, panhandlers and drug users in and around Penn Station in recent months, attributing it to larger social problems facing New York City. They said they’ve taken some measures recently to improve the situation, including cordoning off some sections of Penn during overnight hours, and assigning MTA Police officers to the new East End Gateway entrance on 33rd Street — a known haven for illicit activity, according to commuters and MTA officials.

NYPD also has stepped up patrols of subways, including at another area where the homeless tend to congregate — the A-C-E station corridor connecting Penn to the new Moynihan Train Hall on Eighth Avenue.

MTA chairman Patrick Foye, an LIRR commuter who uses Penn Station daily, said he recently noticed an improvement from earlier this year. "I’m not telling you it’s perfect, but the MTA Police has been more focused on Penn Station," Foye said in May.

MTA: Fractured oversight, policing are issues

MTA officials concede that there are several obstacles to thoroughly addressing the problem, including the fractured oversight and policing of Penn Station, which is used by Amtrak, the LIRR, New Jersey Transit and the NYC Transit subway system. Each agency is patrolled by its own police force.

MTA homeless-outreach manager Cynthia Wilson, in a February meeting with the LIRR Commuter Council, said that while police routinely remove people who violate the station’s rules, including by blocking walkways, they typically just relocate to a different part of the station.

"Penn Station is a public place. We can’t say homeless people can’t be there," Wilson said.

Because social services are not the MTA’s "core competency," Wilson said the agency relies on New York City’s Department of Homeless Services and contracted outreach service providers to get Penn Station dwellers the help they need.

The LIRR’s primary homeless-outreach contractor at Penn, the Bowery Residents’ Committee, came under fire in 2019 after investigators with the MTA Inspector General’s Office observed employees routinely ignoring homeless people and closing their doors to them during working hours. BRC officials did not respond to a request for comment.

While "not trying to necessarily defend" the contracted homeless-outreach providers, the MTA’s chief safety officer, Patrick Warren, said there’s only so much they can do, because they can’t force people to accept help.

"The reality is, if you’re a homeless-outreach worker and you walk up to somebody and you say, 'Hey, are you interested in services?' and they say, 'Not right now,' do you walk up to them 30 minutes later and say, 'How about now?' " Warren said. "It’s really challenging in that regard to get them to move."

MTA officials said they have stepped up their policing efforts, including by hiring 500 cops since last year. They said they need more help from other agencies with a stake in Penn, including Amtrak, the city's DHS and the NYPD.

"It is a location that is the city’s responsibility," Warren said. "We continue to ask the city to do more in that regard."

NYPD spokeswoman Sgt. Jessica McRorie said the department in April launched a pair of programs aimed at addressing homelessness and quality-of-life issues in and around Penn Station: the "Business District Recovery Initiative" and the "34th Street Transit Initiative." Both involve police coordinating with other law enforcement and social service agencies, including DHS, which did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams said the "safety and quality of the experience" of Penn Station users is the agency's top priority. That's why police officers from multiple agencies, as well as the New York National Guard, "patrol the station daily, ensuring the safety" of all passengers, he said.

"This includes assisting with getting services for any persons requesting social service assistance and addressing the homeless population," Abrams said. "New York Penn Station is a safe place."

Passenger: Shoved by 'emotionally disturbed person'

That’s not the experience of Merrick commuter Shirah Abudarham, 34, who said that late last year she was shoved to a subway platform floor, near its edge, by an "emotionally disturbed person" one stop from Penn Station. And, a few weeks ago, she witnessed someone lying in the middle of a Penn walkway who later was carried out on a stretcher.

"It’s unfair on the individuals that are suffering from mental health issues and not getting the care that they need," she said. "And it’s unsafe for the commuters. So it’s bad all around."

LIRR Commuter Council chairman Gerard Bringmann said authorities can, and should, be doing more to address the problem. He said it has become more apparent in recent months both because of reduced ridership on the LIRR, and because of the closure of large parts of Penn Station due to construction, including all the shops and eateries in the LIRR’s lower-level concourse.

"They’re more noticeable. And also, they’re a higher percentage of the people in Penn Station, because our ridership is still way down," said Bringmann, who believes the reduced number of commuters at the station has made a difference in how police deal with loitering at the station. "Unless they’re presenting a clear and present danger, the cops don’t really bother with them. They just kind of let it go."

Jacquelyn Simone, senior policy analyst at the Coalition for the Homeless, a nonprofit advocacy group, said rather than look to "push homelessness out of sight," MTA officials, and commuters, should want to get to the root causes of the issue, including by advocating for more affordable housing in New York City.

"Our discomfort in witnessing this is nothing compared to the trauma and the tragedy experienced by people who are actually without housing," said Simone, who noted that the MTA’s overnight closure of the subway system during much of the pandemic could have pushed even more homeless people into Penn.

"I think it’s very telling that, at a time when so many of us were told to stay home for our safety and the safety of others, tens of thousands of New Yorkers didn’t have a home to go to," she said.

It’s largely unknown how many homeless people live in Penn Station, or anywhere else in New York City’s transit system. DHS keeps statistics only of people entering and exiting designated homeless shelters.

Last year, the MTA inspector general criticized the MTA in a report because it "does not know how many homeless individuals shelter in the system, how many are convinced to leave each day, and how many actually shelter elsewhere."

According to the Coalition for the Homeless, which relies on public data, 11,218 families slept in homeless shelters on the average night in April — down from 13,861 in April 2020.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.