New York is one of the most diverse places in the world. There are foreigners moving in on a daily basis, millions of families across every borough, and people of all backgrounds coming together to create the city’s rich identity.
But there’s an aspect of New York, as there is with every city, that isn’t considered enough: the homeless population. These people consistently get lost in the mix of the constant movement in and around any urban space.
Recently, in my neighborhood on the Upper West Side, a homeless man unfortunately passed away. I had never talked to him nor showed interest, partly regarding my safety, but also partly because I never had anything to say.
Most of my friends around the Upper West Side who knew him often called him ‘tie-dye man,’ because he always wore the same yellow, green and pink tie-dye shirt. Naturally, it was pretty dirty and had a few rips, but it made him recognizable to people. Upper West Side resident Audrey Bogin ’27 recalls she “saw him sometimes while driving … my mom would point him out in the car [and] be like, ‘that’s the tie dye guy.’” However, I later found out his actual name was Wayne.
Wayne would always be located right outside the 110th Street Cathedral Parkway train station that the B and C train lines run through. I had repeatedly been seeing him almost my whole life, and he seemed about thirty to thirty-five years old.
To everyone who walked up and down the station steps he would mumble words — which were usually pretty hard to make out — while holding a bottle of alcohol covered in a brown paper bag. I still don’t know where he slept or anything about how he managed to survive for that matter, which is a testament to how little we know or give thought to the people with no home in the city.
He exhibited problems with drugs, alcohol, and mental illness. Some days seemed to be better than others, but local Upper West Side resident Leslie Mattingly, who frequently uses the Cathedral Parkway Station, recalled a time when he lashed out. “A young man in his twenties was walking in front of me as we exited the subway station… he was a 20-something kid with short hair and glasses — looked like a student perhaps. I’m not sure if he was listening to music or just smiling to himself, but it somehow triggered Wayne. He lunged at the kid, yelling ‘Do you think this is funny?’ The kid was startled and started running down the block while Wayne chased him yelling expletives. Thankfully, Wayne didn’t harm the young man, but it was disturbing since it showed he needed help,” Mattingly recollected.
There are obviously reasons why some locals chose not to interact with Wayne — some more justifiable than others — but, regardless of his temperaments and addiction problems, I was (albeit, unjustly) surprised to see the impact he truly had on the community.
Upon his death in mid-November 2024, I noticed as I was walking into the Cathedral Parkway station that there was an influx of letters, candles, pictures, and roses left out for him in his remembrance. They all depicted stories of good memories of Wayne (or, as I knew him, ‘tie-dye man’), as well as kind and mournful words about his character.
It became clear to me that my decision to not interact with Wayne was an unpopular one. As the memorial to his life showed, many people took the time to know him. Wayne had friends, a life, and a routine, all which made him a homeless man with a home; and this is only one of the hundreds of thousands of people struggling with homelessness across New York City that have a similar story.
When I passed a homeless person walking down a city sidewalk, I either didn’t give them much thought or I would make a small attempt to avoid them to prioritize my safety. This feeling, although valid, cannot be applied to every stranger in the city. Mark Horvath, advocate for homeless people in cities and founder of Invisible People, wrote in a New York Times article that for homeless people, “in the hardest moment of their lives, they have been largely abandoned, and even punished, by the rest of us. So we hope you’ll do more than dismiss, or judge…and instead listen to them.”
Homelessness in New York City has been on the rise in recent years. The amount of homeless children in public schools, for instance, across the city has gone up 23% since last year, and children have been residing in shelters or doubling up with friends and family. Being a homeless student is already hard as it is, especially considering the many struggles they face outside of their academic life. The last thing a child in this situation needs is less accessibility to school.
In 2022-2023, the City’s Department of Homeless Services also placed 40% of homeless families in shelters located in a different borough than where their children go to school. This puts adolescents in these situations at even more of a disadvantage, considering the fact that daily long commutes is only going to increase tardiness and absences.
However, the Department of Homeless Services also stated that they have raised the rate of families who live in the same borough as the school of their youngest child up to 80% in this past year. They noted that education is “not a privilege but a right” to all public school students, regardless of their residential status.
Other possible solutions have been explored to help remedy this crisis. City of Yes, the most recent zoning proposal for New York City, included a three part proposal including ways to prevent climate and help to increase business economies. However, there were also ideas to help to increase building of affordable housing and infrastructure projects across the city.
The plan introduced various proposals, some more out-of-reach than others. There were proposals to end parking mandates for new housing in some neighborhoods, which would provide space or housing such as backyard cottages and basement apartments, as well as allowing new housing to be built above businesses on commercial streets in low-density areas.
There was also the inclusion of new apartment buildings to be constructed near subways, as well as the ability for developers to create larger tenements — only if they follow guidelines which would restrict new residents to only be of lower or lower-middle incomes.
Five billion dollars was to be additionally allocated to state funds in order to ease restrictions on building construction, with the possibility to create around 80,000 new homes in the City.
But, the City Council Committee did not accept all aspects of this plan. They denied the proposals for development near transit stations as well as backyards and basements, as well as the elimination of parking to be included in new development projects in Manhattan, and parts of Brooklyn and Queens.
Homelessness has always been an issue in any city. But especially in recent years, and notably in New York, the housing crisis has never looked worse. There are so many individuals as well as families in all boroughs who deserve a home and opportunity just as much as anyone. Wayne, for example, was someone who meant a lot – and still means a lot – to his community, regardless of what his residential status was. People who are homeless deserve more than our arrogance, and instead need our aid and appreciation.
“In the hardest moment of their lives, they have been largely abandoned, and even punished, by the rest of us. So we hope you’ll do more than dismiss, or judge, … and instead listen to them,” said Mark Horvath, advocate for homeless people in cities and founder of Invisible People.