The MTA has rolled out a new tactic to prevent the homeless from sleeping in New York City's subway system: removing the backrests of benches.
All the roughly dozen wooden benches at the West 4th Street station have had their backs removed. Asked about the reconfigured seating, the MTA said that the changes were made last month and aimed at deterring people from sleeping inside the station.
“Station management removed the backs from the benches at West 4th St, which has successfully led to a reduction in people sleeping in that problematic station; an improvement in employee safety and comfort; improved cleanliness; and an increase in the amount of customers using the benches as they wait for trains," said Shams Tarek, a spokesperson for the MTA, in explaining the changes.
He added that agency's social service outreach program "continues to make thousands of contacts in an effort to get people living in the subway the help they need.”
Over the years, the MTA has been accused by homeless advocates and urban planners of deploying increasingly uncomfortable seating arrangements as a form of "hostile architecture," meant to prevent people from loitering and sleeping in the subway system. But the latest measure at the West 4th Street station is one of the most aggressive displays to date, coming amid a citywide effort to crack down on homeless people in the subways.
All the benches at the station contain multiple armrests, which are also viewed as a deliberate design to prevent individuals from lying down. But the backrest had allowed users to recline somewhat in a more restful position.
"It's really backwards and sickening," said Josh Dean, who co-founded the homeless advocacy group Human.nyc and frequently talks to homeless individuals in the subways. "They are just going to keep shuffling people around."
Referring to the cold weather conditions and those who might be forced to go without sleep, he added: "It's going to have consequences on people's health."
The subway benches are now backless at the West 4th Street station
Transit officials, meanwhile, have blamed the homeless for creating unsanitary conditions, being disruptive as a result of mental health or drug issues, and contributing to train delays. According to the city, some 3,600 New Yorkers live on the streets, although homeless advocacy groups say the number is likely larger.
Some say the West 4th Street station has been an especially popular refuge for people to camp out and sleep, with as many 15 people on some nights, according to one MTA employee. The agency said it has received complaints both from MTA employees charged with cleaning the station and the NYPD, which has been charged with issuing summonses for people who break various rules such as lying outstretched in the subway.
Dean said that similar to periodic removal of the homeless from other public areas, displacing the homeless from subway stations they regularly frequent undermines the goals of outreach workers, who are trying to forge a connection with people, and in some cases, buy some time until a spot opens up at a safe haven, a type of shelter favored by many homeless people because it comes with fewer restrictions.
The city's so-called subway diversion program, which offers to clear summonses for homeless individuals who agree to undergo an assessment and accept a shelter referral, has been criticized by the City Council and homeless advocates for failing to address the underlying reasons for street homelessness.
"In the absence of actually providing housing or low-threshold safe haven shelters, you are not solving homelessness," said Giselle Routhier, the policy director for the Coalition for the Homeless.
In December, Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed to end street homelessness within the next five years by building more safe havens as well as permanent housing. But in the early stages of such a plan, homeless advocates say there are still not enough safe havens and housing to go around.
The same MTA employee who spoke about homeless numbers at the station told Gothamist that the decision to remove the backs of the benches came from "up top." The individual said Andy Byford, the departing New York City Transit chief, had recently done a walk-through of the station. "He didn't like what he saw," the person said, asking that his name not be used for fear of offending his superiors.
Asked if Byford had asked for the benches to be altered, Tarek said he could not comment on "anonymous speculation." [See update below.]
Byford, who is set to leave this month, has been open about wanting to prioritize the experience of subway riders over the homeless, saying at a 2018 MTA board meeting that "laying across a seat or behaving in an antisocial manner or making a mess is not acceptable.”
The following year, he told the New York Times, "I want to stick up for my customers. They have paid good money to have a safe, clean, traveling environment.”
But many urban design critics have said that changes to seating like the one made by the MTA have wound up making public spaces less hospitable for everyone. Last summer, several people tweeted about a row of steel stanchions that had been installed to block people from sitting at Fulton Street Station.
One of them, Ya-Ting Liu, told Gothamist at the time that she had often used the low ledges as a place to sit and relax, and that she interpreted MTA's message as, “You can’t be here. Don’t hang around, keep it moving.”
The MTA cited several assaults as well as a shattered window as the reason for roping off the area.
Asked whether the new bench configuration at West 4th Street would be applied to other stations in the near future, Tarek said such decisions would be made on "a case by case basis."
UPDATE: Late Friday afternoon, Tarek told Gothamist that Byford said he never ordered the backs to be taken off the benches at the West 4th Street station.
