The Staten Island Advance reports on the city's efforts to remove homeless people from the St. George Ferry Terminal. About 75 have been living at the terminal this winter, "Though police and city officials were reluctant to chase them into the bitter cold, their presence has become a security and public health issue, sources say, with the eruption of fights and complaints of public defecation."
In January, when reporting on the growing homeless population at the ferry terminal, the Advance wrote that the police had been letting "the homeless know there are shelters throughout the city that will take them, but as long as each person is taking up only one seat, they have every right to be there." Now, with the Department of Transportation formally closing the terminal between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. (ferry passengers can enter 15 minutes before ferries leave), the police have been asking the homeless—some recently homeless due to the recession—to leave, with outreach workers from the Department of Homeless Services and non-profit Project Hospitality offering to drive them to shelters. This news comes a week after the city said street homelessness dropped by 30% last year.
However, many homeless are opting to sleep outside the terminal. The Advance also details the issues that the Staten Island Ferry Staff has had with the homeless: "A staffer recalled that a homeless man defecated inside the waiting room; told to leave while an employee came to clean up the mess, he repeated the indiscretion on the stairs leading to the Staten Island Railway. Another source said he has seen a person defecate on the deck of a ferry boat. No punitive action is taken, he noted; 'the only thing we can do is clean it up.'"
