New York's subway employees are cleaning around homeless people because they were told not to 'engage with someone who isn't interested in moving'

• Interim MTA President Sarah Feinberg told The New York Post that staff are disinfecting subway cars to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
• She said that employees can't ask homeless people to move while cleaning because they were told not to "engage with someone who isn't interested in moving or doesn't want to move."
• Homeless people have sought shelter in the subway system during the novel coronavirus pandemic, in part because they have nowhere else to go.
• Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a press conference on Monday that the city is working to further support the homeless population and find them beds.
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Staff from New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority say they're cleaning around homeless people as the agency says employees are told not to ask people to move.

Interim MTA President Sarah Feinberg told The New York Post that employees can't ask anyone to move from their seats without police or city intervention.

"We do not ask our workforce or our cleaners to engage in social services or to engage with someone who isn't interested in moving or doesn't want to move," Feinberg told The Post. "Certainly we don't ask or allow people to get into a confrontation with anyone. That is exactly what of the many problems we are trying to solve for at the moment."

The MTA is disinfecting its trains multiple times during the day to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, and on Wednesday the agency is enacting system-wide closures to make more time for cleaning.

Homeless people have sought shelter in the subway system during the novel coronavirus pandemic, and Feinberg said in April that she was "losing patience" with the number of people living in subway cars. Over the weekend, two homeless men were found dead in trains.

But many of the people living in cars during the pandemic are there in part because they have nowhere else to go.

"Homeless people in transit is a reflection of the housing crisis — it's not something that can be addressed by the MTA and NYPD," Danny Pearlstein of Riders Alliance, told the NYC Streets Blog. "People need a safe, private place to live. If every New Yorker had that we wouldn't have a problem with homeless people on the subway."

It remains unclear where these people will go when the trains close overnight, but Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a press conference on Monday that the city is working to further support the homeless population.

"We will always have a bed available for anyone who's coming out of the subway, who has been living on the street and needs a safe haven bed or shelter bed," de Blasio said. "We will always have one available."

De Blasio said that NYPD and Homeless Services are working to provide medical checks for homeless populations during the pandemic.

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