Gov. Cuomo directs MTA to clean subway cars every 24 hours
NEW YORK - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered the MTA to clean its fleet of subway cars every night, as the system’s homeless population has soared in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.
“Any essential worker who shows up and gets on a train should know that that train was disinfected the night before,” Cuomo said.
The NYPD and the MTA police, along with social workers, are doing homeless outreach to move people off of trains so they can be cleaned.
“Our customers should not have to board a car that’s being used as a shelter,” said acting New York City Transit President Sarah Feinberg, who placed the blame for the issue squarely at the feet of Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“The city needs to do better,” Feinberg said. “The residents of this city deserve better, and the city needs to do better. We cannot leave the most vulnerable to suffer quietly in a tunnel or a train.”
De Blasio has directed more NYPD officers to assist transit police and social workers with getting the homeless off subway cars and called on the MTA to close stations between midnight and 5 a.m.
The New York City Homeless Coalition is calling on the city to open thousands of hotel rooms for homeless people who are riding the subways during the crisis, saying that crowded shelters don’t provide enough safety.