DPW: Poicy vs. Practice

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By Karen Fishkin, HANC Board Member

Mohammed Nuru attended the last HANC meeting, to share the latest endeavorsof his department.  The audience was especially interested in how his workforce treat homeless folks that they are tasked with moving on, and cleaning up after.

He stated strongly that staff are told to keep any belongings of homeless residents, to give them information on how thy may reclaim them, and to do a written inventory of all items confiscated.

Several audience members let him know that they either knew first hand or had heard from others, that what should be done was not always what happened on the streets.  Many people have watched their stuff disappear into the back of a garbage truck, never to be seen again.

 

If you have witnessed this problem, please feel free to call 311 to make a report.  If enough reports accumulate, perhaps the practice will be adjusted to be more in line with DPW policy.  (HANC would like to hear about these occurrences as well. Thanks.)