A homeless outreach program in New York’s Penn Station closed its doors after allegedly receiving a threat from a homeless person who said he would return to the office armed and ready to shoot.
The Bowery Residents Committee, or BRC, which is contracted to provide homeless services in the subterranean terminal, was forced to shut down on Saturday after receiving the threat.
The homeless man, who is believed to have threatened staffers at the office when he was told to leave, allegedly responded by saying, ‘I will leave, but I’m going to come back with a gun and shoot you’.
A man is seen seated outside the Broadway Residents Committee homeless outreach program at New York’s Penn Station after it was closed this past weekend due to a threat made against the staff
Commuters are seen walking past the Bowery Residents Committee’s homeless outreach program at New York’s Penn Station after it was shuttered on Saturday. The BRC contracts with Amtrak to provide homeless services at the terminal
Patrolling Amtrak officers at Penn Station are pictured asking homeless people to move. One homeless man was alleged to have threatened a homeless outreach program in the terminal by saying, ‘I will leave, but I’m going to come back with a gun and shoot you’
The man was identified by law enforcement sources as Eugene Watts, the New York Post reports.
The BRC’s president and CEO Muzzy Rosenblatt told the Post that homeless persons had been rerouted to an office eight blocks away on 25th Street after the office was temporarily shuttered due to a ‘very specific threat’.
The BRC did not immediately respond when DailyMail.com reached out for an update.
A spokesperson for Amtrak, which contracts with the BRC for its outreach services, said the office has since reopened, but did not have additional information.
A homeless person is seen asleep at New York’s Penn Station, where a homeless outreach program was shuttered after a vagrant made threats on Saturday
Watts, who denied he made the threat, has since been seen in the terminal holding court and spewing hatred at cops, the Post reports.
The man was spotted drinking a beer and being defiant to officers who asked him to move.
‘Mr. Eugene Watts, you have five minutes to leave,’ one of two patrolling Amtrak cops told the man on Thursday, informing him that there was a pending warrant out for his arrest.
Watts fired back, telling the officers and that he would ‘rather go to jail’
He also boasted that he could get himself an apartment.
The police walked away.
The station, meanwhile, is increasingly becoming overrun by homeless people.
‘You see people who are barefoot. People throw ice in here. I’ve seen people literally defecate right here in front of the store,’ said Cesar Rodriguez, who manages a Verizon store at the terminal, reports the Post.
Even former New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton took to Twitter to point out the rising problem within the terminal, noting it was already happening before the outreach program closed its doors.
‘People always sleeping on the floor, all over the station,’ he wrote in the social media post.
Former New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton took to Twitter to point out the rising homeless problem within the terminal, noting it was already happening before the outreach program closed its doors
A July 2019 audit by the New York State Comptroller’s office found that the nonprofit BRC had not been fulfilling its requirements under its contract.
The report noted that staffers spent 26 per cent of their time doing actual outreach, and the rest inside the office, the New York Post reports.
Rosenblatt said the BRC faces difficulties in carrying out its mission at the station.
‘Homelessness is challenging for the person experiencing it,’ he said. ‘It’s challenging for those of us trying to help people. It’s challenging for the people who are using Penn Station to travel and shop’.
Homeless people, however, complained the BRC wasn’t doing a good enough job providing them support.
A homeless man sleeps on the floor at New York’s Penn Station, which is beset by vagrants seeking shelter
‘They’ve done nothing for me,’ Andre Watkins, a homeless man at the terminal told the Post on Monday. ‘I don’t even see them. I go to the office and tell them that they’re not taking care of us.’
Another homeless person, Scott Miller, voiced similar frustrations.
‘It seems like when you ask questions, it’s just a pass-the-buck attitude,’ Miller said. ‘They don’t give you the right answers sometimes. You have to have so many contacts with them’.
The program is supported by funding from Amtrak and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA, which operates New York’s local and express bus, subway and commuter rail services.
MTA Chief Safety Officer Patrick Warren says the agency ‘fully expect our partners to meet the standards set forth in their contracts, and if those terms are not met appropriate actions will be taken’.