Drafting the Annotations

  MLB Citation:

Goldbaum, Christina. “The Subway Was Their Refuge on Cold Nights. Now It’s Off-Limits.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Feb. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/nyregion/nyc-subway-homeless.html. 

Summary:

The article by Christina Goldbaum shows that many homeless people use the train as a place for shelter, especially in winter. Many do not have any place to go because they are closed down do to the pandemic, so they have to sleep outside. The pandemic took away a lot of the indoor safety net of many homeless people. So the state added public workers to help many homeless people into public shelters, however many are not interested in shelters because they are often filled with violence. Not only have the trains closed for cleaning but the indoor 24-hour diners and fast food restaurants have closed as well. Also people aren’t letting homeless stay in their homes to sleep because they feel afraid of contracting Covid-19. It gets worst because New York City has grown to have the highest level of unemployment and many more people are opened to becoming homeless. So the city has had an increase in specialized shelters with private or shared rooms, many homeless avoid the type of shelter because they fear theft, violence or being exposed to the coronavirus. Homeless people struggle to live everyday with the pandemic making things worse. They feel safe in the train station because it provides warmth in the winter time, and is away from everyone else, for example “For decades, the city’s sprawling subway system has offered a shelter of last resort for thousands of homeless New Yorkers.” This shows that people who struggle to find a place during the winter have to resort to the train because they feel warmer. They can’t sleep outdoors because it can be cold in winter, and the diners are closed, shelters are dangerous, so they feel it’s safer in the train station. 

Rhetoric:

“The city has said that all people who live on the streets are ‘service      resistant’ and don’t want to come inside,” The article shows the very difficulty that many homeless people must face because they are unable to find a job or home. Many struggle to live on the street only to find the places they can go are filled with violence and germs. It becomes worse in the winter because they have to sleep in the cold, and no one is willing to take them in because they are afraid of contracting the virus. Homeless people continue to struggle to find any resources to survive. I believe the author is very credible because I was able to search other sources to see that Homelessness in NYC is growing faster each month because of the pandemic. The questions I have is Why do people have to hurt one another even if they are struggling? Why don’t they wanna take the share shelter even if it’s violent? Why do people make it so difficult to find a job as a homeless individual? I believe that many people who are homeless struggle to overcome it because the system makes it very difficult to find a home and job.