The plight of the area’s homeless got a notch tougher last week when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey alerted the PERC homeless shelter in Union City via letter that, “due to unforeseen circumstances, it is necessary to suspend all outreach services beginning June 1, 2003 through October 31, 2003.”
The PERC (Palisades Emergency Residence Center) Outreach program, jointly run by the Port Authority and the PERC/St. John’s Shelter, allowed social workers to fan out to PATH train stations and other Port Authority-run facilities to try to get any homeless people into area shelters. A total of eight workers comprised the outreach program, under the tutelage of Outreach Director Lourdes Robello.
All will be out of work as of June 1.
And while the letter gives Nov. 1 as a date of return for the outreach program, PERC Director of Services Tom Harrigan isn’t so confident in the reinstatement of the program. Said Harrigan in a recent telephone interview, “They told us they are thinking of bringing it back in November, but to be honest, I’m not so sure.”
In a recent interview, Robello seemed less concerned with her future of unemployment than she was for the people she cares for on a daily basis. Said Robello, “I have clients, and we don’t know what we’re going to do with them. We have people waiting for detox. What are we going to do with them? One of the things we provide is meals. Some of these people only eat once a day, and those are the people that we bring here from Journal Square and other stations.”
According to Robello, the Port Authority’s decision will have an immediate effect on not only the homeless, but on other agencies in the area. Said Robello, “These people are going to go right back to the homeless lifestyle, and that is perhaps the most tragic part of all of this. The biggest thing that we give them is structure, and they’re going to lose that.”
Trust will suffer
According to PERC/St. John Director of Services Tom Harrigan, “The shelter will go on. It’s not like this development is going to close us down. And our outreach people will collect unemployment – they have support, but the clients will suffer.”
PERC runs a shelter that sleeps as many as 40 people per night. Residents are entitled to breakfast and dinner.
Harrigan added, “This will effectively end the only Outreach program in Hudson County. My concern is for the clients, and the thing that will suffer the most is trust.”
Harrigan explained that a great many of the homeless have mental problems and drug issues or a combination of both. Many have been on the streets for years and have learned not only to adapt to the brutality of that existence, but as they’ve drawn away from society, have also learned a great deal of distrust for anyone in authority. So, for shelter workers, establishing a level of trust and understanding with the homeless is a long process fraught with pitfalls.
The PERC people are concerned that the Port Authority’s decision, even if “temporary,” will undo everything that they have been able to accomplish with many of their clients.
Said Harrigan, “I’ve had residents of the shelter ask me, ‘Is the shelter closing?’. This really upsets them. And these are people who don’t respond well to upset.”
Continued Harrigan, “The impact of this will not only affect Union City, but also Jersey City and other towns.”
Tough budget decisions
According to the letter sent by the Port Authority to the shelter announcing the decision, “PATH reserves the right to alter, by increasing, reducing or changing coverage hours, any level of service provided. The contractor has the right to suggest changes to the coverage hours they provide and the number of staff team members needed to provide sufficient service at the JCTC and Jersey City stations. The contractor will be notified in writing, at least 30 days in advance of a request by PATH to alter the hours and staff needed for coverage.”
The letter ends with, “We will be in contact with you in early October to resume outreach services and regret any hardship this may cause your agency.”
Certainly, it appears that the Port Authority has every intention of resuming services. According to Port Authority spokesperson Steve Coleman, “It’s definitely a temporary thing. Like other governmental entities, we’ve had to make tough budgetary decisions. With the seasons changing now, we figured this is the best time to do this. Every department has been challenged with cutting back.”
According to PERC Director Harrigan, the monthly operating expense to the Port Authority is approximately $23,000. This covers salaries, benefits and transportation expenses.
The outreach workers are a mix of full- and part-time employees of PERC. Their average salary runs approximately $9.25 an hour.
Continued Coleman, “Obviously, we’d prefer to keep this going year ’round, but its either reducing services or look for other alternatives. Service is the last thing that should be affected, that’s the business we’re in. But I can assure you that this is a temporary situation. It will resume on November 1.”
‘Review of contract expenditures’
On the surface, it would appear that the Port Authority is steadfast in its intention to re-instate the program come November, but something isn’t sitting right with the PERC/St. John’s folks.
Said PERC Director of Finance and Administration Susan Wagner-Glasser, “The statement that I received is that ‘we intend to resume operations’. To me, that is a lot different than ‘we will resume operations.’ ” While this point is open to interpretation, a letter dated April 15, 2003 appears to confirm the shelter’s fear that even if the program is resumed, it will be in a radically different form then what existed before.
The letter, signed by Port Authority Operations Unit Supervisor Charles T. Trombetta, states, “Thank you for your recent submission to assist us in reducing our overall expense for the outreach program that PERC conducts at all the Jersey City stations on the PATH system.”
According to PERC Director Tom Harrigan, the Port Authority asked the shelter to reduce their overall operating costs by 5 percent.
Continues the letter, “I would like this revised plan to remain in effect until December 2003, at which time a review of our contract services expenditures will again be conducted.”
It is this last point that most concerns PERC and seems to give credence to Director of Finance Susan Wagner-Glasser’s contention that if the program does resume, it will be in a vastly reduced form.
Said Glasser, “This is very abrupt. There’s an awful lot of people and agencies that this is going to affect. My personal feeling is that this wasn’t thought out very well.”