CBS2 sets out with nonprofit street outreach team to see what's being done in troubled parts of Chelsea
NEW YORK -- Homelessness, violence, drug use, and noise -- those are the issues people living in one Manhattan neighborhood say they deal with on a nightly basis.
CBS2 first told you about the problems over the summer. Now, several months after our story, we're revisiting the area with social workers.
Eighth Avenue and 21st Street is an area some residents say has become a corner of concern.
"Drug use, needles, pipes ... they're doing more than just loitering," one person said.
"There's prostitutes. They're selling drugs on the corner," Michael Palmer said.
"You deal with people who are seriously high 24-7," Vivek Batra added.
Those are just a few of the issues Chelsea residents say they deal with on a nightly basis. That's in addition to activity happening in front of Public School 11 down the block, and the city says it's not just up to police to handle.
Overnight, CBS2 meet a street outreach team from Goddard Riverside, a subcontractor for the Center for Urban Community Services, or CUCS. The pair carries Narcan, hand sanitizer and other basics to give to people in need.
Officials with Goddard say workers come to the area at least five times per week, in addition to responding to 311 calls.
In 2021, the city paid the nonprofit more than $10 million for outreach and stabilization beds in Manhattan. A stabilization bed is a room where a person who is street homeless can stay that is not in the shelter system.
With the team, CBS2 walked towards a person who was seen passed out earlier, but police were there.
"It seems like police asked the person to move from the location there and that we find then that's probably not the best time to engage someone," said Linson Bailey, Goddard Riverside's program director for the night and weekend team.
The pair tried to engage another person a few blocks away, but he did not want to talk to them.
Back on Eighth Avenue near 23rd Street, a man was curled up steps away from pills, empty bottles, and a bandage.
"When you see that, is there reason to do more?" CBS2 asked.
"Not unless we believe that someone is in medical distress," Bailey said. "We would definitely reach out to medical services."
Arrests for narcotics in the NYPD's 10th Precinct have increased 56% year to date. In July, Commanding Officer Robert Gault told CBS2 he felt misconduct was being driven by individuals with substance abuse problems that need help.
"It's not something we'll be able to arrest our way out of," Gault said.
"Every year, my taxes are going higher and higher and higher and every year my quality life is going lower and lower and lower," resident Kalliopi Hadjigeorges said.
Residents said they are not aware of what social workers are doing, but feel more needs to be done to address people struggling with mental illness and substance abuse.
CUCS says in the last six months there were four people in Chelsea that the organization did help get into permanent housing. It also says that staff did not need to use Narcan in that time frame or call Emergency Services.
Mayor Eric Adams did announce in November the city would "involuntarily" remove some individuals off the street who have severe mental illness. CUCS told CBS2 that it is waiting for details on how it will be implemented.
The commanding officer of the 10th Precinct declined to speak with CBS2 again for this story.
