‘The bills that make up the SOS Act, introduced by Council Members Francisco Moya and Diana Ayala, would raise the standards for workers like me to ensure that privately-run shelters are providing decent wages, benefits and training opportunities to security workers.‘
Adi Talwar
A homeless Shelter for men in Queens.Like many essential workers, I have been going to work this past year, knowing that every day I risked being exposed to the coronavirus at the homeless shelter I work in or as I commute on public transportation. Even though I have two stents in my chest and high blood pressure, I knew I had to continue going to work to continue to pay my bills.
Throughout 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the city I call home, with so many New Yorkers losing their lives and the shelter system being hit particularly hard. Every day, I went to work as a shelter security officer worrying about contracting the virus and potentially bringing it home to my brother or my elderly father. Even when I was feeling sick, I didn’t have any paid days off to use. Not having days off meant that I had to constantly choose between taking care of my health and putting food on the table.
Shortly after I started feeling ill, on April 2, 2020, my father was hospitalized. On April 6, I received a phone call notifying me that my father had passed away. When I took unpaid time off to facilitate his services, my employer continued to call me, asking when I would be able to come back to work. That’s because many of New York City’s homeless shelters, including the one where I work, are severely understaffed.
Because our jobs don’t pay enough to afford what we need to live, don’t provide meaningful healthcare and don’t equip us with the training we need, there is always a high turnover. I, for example, work up to 70 hours every week to make ends meet—I make $16.50 an hour and pay for my own health insurance. Throughout my three years as a security officer in the shelter system, I saw other security officers who changed jobs after half a year, or at times even less.
Our city is taking special efforts to reduce homelessness, improve the standards of the City’s shelter system and expand access to permanent affordable housing. Good paying, high quality jobs for shelter security officers must be part of the picture. Better job standards can improve turnover rates, and support workforce continuity and the retention of site-specific knowledge, while comprehensive training can promote the adherence to safety protocols.
With the SOS Act (The Safety in Our Shelters Act, Intros 1995/2006) we have an opportunity to make this a reality.
The bills that make up the SOS Act, introduced by Council Members Francisco Moya and Diana Ayala, would raise the standards for workers like me to ensure that privately-run shelters are providing decent wages, benefits and training opportunities to security workers.
If we can raise the standards at privately-run shelters across the city, we can make sure that security officers like myself can provide for our families, and have the healthcare, time off and training we need to keep ourselves safe and better serve New York’s most vulnerable.
Taking steps to turn private shelter jobs into family-sustaining, good jobs would mean that thousands of majority Black, Brown and immigrant security officers can not only make ends meet, but lift up our communities as we look to recover from the devastations of COVID-19.
I ask the City Council to pass these bills as soon as possible. As the City Council and Speaker Corey Johnson continue their strong record of standing up for working people, we can continue to be there for our city.
Leonard Bell is a homeless shelter security officer in New York City.
6 thoughts on “Opinion: NYC’s Homeless Shelters Workers Need Better Job Standards to Survive”
As a consultant that writes the grants that fund these shelters, I can’t help but wonder for which agency Mr. Bell works. There are some that provide full benefits, respect overtime and provide good services for clients. Not many, but some.
to the first comment: not all shelters are run like yours, and people at the top have no concept of what workers on the bottom deal with. i am a janitor at a homeless /domestic violence shelter. several residents are covid posite, yet to date only 2 have been contained in their units. these people are allowed to roam freely and nothing is enforced. i had to work for 3 months consecutively without a mop, mop bucket or cleaning supplies. not to mention frequently running out of sanitizer. i was even told that since i was the ONLY employee vaccinated that i would have to deliver packages, and food and such to these residents. My employer has routinely put my health at risk with infected residents. Not to mention violent residents who attack and injure staff and are allowed back in without fear of any consequences. All this for minimum wage, with absolutely NO VACATION TIME, NO HOLIDAY PAY IF YOU WORK ON ONE, NO BENEFITS WHATSOEVER AND NO HEALTH INSURANCE. This is common throughout the industry. As a consultant, you get ALL of these services. I do not. These shelter with good pay and benefits are impossible to find, let alone seek employment. Ive been looking for several years. Imaging having to constantly decide between rent or medicine, and then having to risk covid infection just to make the choice. The shelters only care about how many people they can fill the building with and how much the state pays for each one.
I work at a domestic violence shelter in queens and I worked trough the pandemic. I never received hazard pay and when I raised the question I was treated like a outcast. I feel that as a essential worker I should be compensated for coming to work while most of the staff stayed home due to putting their lives in jeopardy everyday. I’m happy I subscribed to this newsletter, this article gives me hope.
Thank you for sharing your story, Mr. Bell.
This is so true I work at a emergency housing facility and being over worked during covid pandemic not has not been easy your are doing your job and the case managers jobs as well due to them not going into facilities so they will not be exposed go figure the employer to these privately own shelters just want to line up their pockets they dont care who gets sick or not it
Iv been working for a homeless shelter for the past 3 years and the insurance they give us is cobra … super expensive … that’s more than half of my paycheck … so I decieded to get my own insurance … I get paid 16.50 hourly. I work in a mens facility. The environment there has been scary lately. Mostly women work .aid job in the facility and there use to be security but they made us take security classes and listen e and let go of the security agency they were working with so female staff are alone in the dorms and restrooms with men… we get all type of clients sex offenders mental health general but regardless it just need to feel more safe fire us . The men that were working at the facility got fired … the clients get out of hand put they’re hands on us and they expect us not to defend our selves .. I myself have a victim of client abuse. What bother me the most is all off this is done for money… even the clients they don’t get towels sometimes or pillows covers for they’re beds and we have to be the ones to tell a client that we do not have meanwhile they are hiding boxes of items in locked closets. Another thing is that it is a not a starlike environment,yea it’s a shelter but I really mean it they don’t clean anything Iv been there for 3 years and haven’t seen maintenance go into the dorms or even our posts and mop or sweep your breathing in dust urine and crap all day. I get sick a lot and if I take a day off I get called to the office and spoken to about absence it’s just crazy… I feel like I’m stuck working 70+ hours a week and they want you to be on stand by. I travel 3 hours to get to and back from work plus the 8 or double shifts I work because we are so low on staff we get mandated on a daily. If I feel drained I can only imagine others in this position. A paycheck away from being in the same position but slaving your life with no appreciation during Covid and other things we deal with in thereWE NEED HELP one of my coworkers passed away the other day … just bother me because he did what he had to do and died randomly but no one at the job cared about his death … no event held for his passing and appreciation or anything … just worry about who’s going to do his job now … we matter too.