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New York, l’épicentre actuel de la pandémie, comptait déjà avant la crise sanitaire 70 000 personnes sans domicile fixe, un record depuis la crise de 1929. Et chaque nuit, ils sont 4 000 à dormir dans les rues. Mais les décisions prises par les autorités pour juguler la progression du virus les ont forcés à réorganiser leur quotidien.">
New York, the current epicenter of the pandemic, already had 70,000 homeless people before the health crisis, a record since the 1929 crisis. And every night, 4,000 people sleep in the streets. But the decisions taken by the authorities to curb the spread of the virus have forced them to reorganize their daily lives.
From our correspondent in New York,
Cheyenne, a 39-year-old African-American, has been homeless since January, after losing her legal assistant job and her apartment. Refusing the shelter, where she does not feel safe, she has juggled between dozing outside, sitting on a folding stool, and “urban camouflage”. Until the closure of shops and places of worship on March 20 to slow the progression of the epidemic.
« Before that, I went to church every day… I could stay inside a store. And most that were open 24 hours a day are no longer. I can’t use the toilet anymore! That is really difficult. People who urinate in the street create more of a health hazard than having a slightly dirty toilet », She says.
Until now, the generosity of passers-by was enough for Cheyenne, but with the isolation, it is greatly diminished. Many soup kitchens have also closed, so since Friday, the city, which provides three meals a day to children from families in difficulty, has extended the distribution to any adult.
450,000 New Yorkers who have already lost their jobs, the authorities estimate that 40% of tenants in New York will not be able to pay their rents from April, and fear that this will swell the ranks of the homeless within a few months.
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