Join the Human.nyc Community

Human.nyc focuses exclusively on unsheltered homelessness through organizing current and former street homeless New Yorkers and working on policy reform that directly responds to their specific needs.

We listen, we investigate, and we organize to demand that the needs of homeless New Yorkers living on the streets and subways are met.

Karim Walker, a member of Human.nyc, speaks outside the City Council prior to a hearing on the Subway Diversion Program.

Karim Walker, a member of Human.nyc, speaks outside the City Council prior to a hearing on the Subway Diversion Program.

In recent months, we were a lead organizing group in the successful campaign to discontinue the coercive Subway Diversion Program, we were one of the core groups in the #HomelessCantStayHome campaign to open hotels during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we exposed and helped end the inappropriate usage of the 30th Street Men’s Shelter during the subway shutdown.

Why monthly?

Human.nyc relies on small-donor donations to operate. Right now, our only expenses are one full-time and one part-time employee, as we have access to pro bono legal and accounting, office space, and socks to donate to our street homeless neighbors. To grow Human.nyc, our goal is to hire a community organizer to build out our membership of unsheltered homeless New Yorkers. We will prioritize hiring a person of color. However, in order to make our next hire, we need a sustainable revenue model.

Human.nyc is by no means a typical nonprofit. Here’s how we work and what we’ve done:

We listen

We hit the streets and listen to homeless New Yorkers who tell us what we need to be focusing on. We’ve spent countless hours sitting on street corners brainstorming policy ideas with New Yorkers experiencing homelessness.

We INVESTIGATE

We chase down leads and shine lights on city failures that often go otherwise stay in the dark. We’ll follow the NYPD on the subways at 3AM if that’s what it takes (as we’ve done many times before). We work with journalists to raise awareness.

We ORGANIZE

We bring homeless New Yorkers to meet with people in power, ultimately driving systemic change. Our members have testified before the City Council, spoken at rallies, and have been featured in prevalent news articles.

Recent Progress:

Subway Diversion Program (NOW DISCONTINUED!):

After homeless New Yorkers shared that they had been experiencing increased police harassment on the subways, we began investigating and posting videos about what we learned. Shortly after, a group of NYPD Officers came forward with an anonymous letter, directed to us, describing their concerns about the new program. Working with homeless New Yorkers, the Coalition For The Homeless, and the Legal Aid Society, we documented the real experiences of those impacted by the Subway Diversion Program. On July 2, 2020, the city announced that the Subway Diversion Program would be discontinued.

 
 

COVID-19 RESPONSE:

As COVID-19 hit New York City, we joined a coalition of organizations (alongside Communities United for Police Reform, Neighbors Together, Picture the Homeless, Safety Net Project at the Urban Justice Center, and VOCAL New York) that became the #HomelessCantStayHome campaign. We demanded the city provide 30,000 single and private hotel rooms for homeless New Yorkers so they could protect themselves from COVID-19. While our demand was not met in full, the city went from complete inaction to providing 13,000 hotel rooms (albeit double rooms rather than single) to homeless New Yorkers in shelters, and several hundred “stabilization beds” in hotel rooms for New Yorkers sleeping on the streets or subways.

 
 

Subway Closures Response:

When the governor and the mayor agreed to close down the subways during the COVID-19 pandemic, they deployed 1,000 NYPD officers to remove people from the trains and send them to shelters. Listening to homeless New Yorkers, we learned that most were being taken to the notoriously dangerous and overcrowded 30th Street Men’s Shelter. We spent a night outside documenting the chaos, which was picked up by several news outlets (NY1, THE CITY, WNYC). The city stopped taking people there within a week, and ultimately reversed course, opening up several hundred hotel rooms for people living on the subways.

Want to touch base with us before you make a donation to raise any questions, comments, or concerns? No problem. Email us at hello@human.nyc. Otherwise, make your monthly donation here: