LaGuardia’s Terminal B has turned into a homeless shelter of sorts with “residents” eating, sleeping, and stripping naked to bathe in the restrooms. The terminal houses American, United, Southwest, JetBlue, Air Canada, Spirit, Frontier, and Virgin America. The NY Post reports that the homeless are squatting in the airport because they feel safer there than in city shelters.
“They have taken over,” said one female worker in the food-court area. “You can’t even use the bathroom. They take showers. They hang their clothes on the stalls. They are butt-naked. They think they are in their house.”
A woman who works as a janitor at the airport added, “Sometimes they sleep on the bathroom floor. I clean around them. I don’t touch them. They might get mad, and I don’t want any trouble.”
When asked about the situation, Mayor Bill de Blasio said it was the Port Authority’s problem and referred to a contract that the PA holds with a nonprofit outreach.
Full article here.
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2 comments
I can’t blame them, to be honest. If I was homeless I would also rather be in the airport. It’s warm (especially in the winter), there are cleaning facilities, and a place to do human business without shame. The only true shame is that we as human beings cannot take care of each other.
It’s a shame that a country as wealthy as the U.S. not only alllows such a shameful situation to occur in the first place, but allows it to fester and grow worse. I’m talking about the homeless and not the use of an airport as a shelter. N.Y. can be bitterly cold in winter and this is a rational use of a warm space. People in India sleep in railway stations all the time. So New Yorkers if you don’t like the comparison do something to eliminate the problem.