In the zeal to “defund” the police last year, the City took away the responsibility of the NYPD to respond to homeless calls. These calls are now supposed to be sent to the Department of Homeless Services which dispatches Breaking Ground to investigate and offer assistance. However, it has been discovered that “homeless encampment” calls are still being routed to the local precinct, which has no choice but to close them out as the 311 system has not yet been updated. “Homeless assistance” calls are sent to DHS, but we have had several this summer that have gone unanswered. For example, a call that was supposed to be answered in 4 hours is still open weeks later and another that was put in was closed after a week because of “not enough information” even though the caller’s number was provided. And the Democratic candidate for mayor Eric Adams has publicly stated that he wants to keep Steven Banks, the DHS Commissioner, who oversees this debacle. Talk about dumb.