By Madina Toure
The city Department of Homeless Services has undertaken a number of initiative to address employee safety in homeless shelters following the murder of Whitestone resident Ana Charle, director of a homeless shelter in the Bronx at the end of April, allegedly by a former resident.
In May, DHS set up an interagency task force with the Health Department, Correction, Probation, the NYPD; and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice.
The task force looks at the agency’s work related to sheltering high-risk populations, including clients affected by serious and persistent mental illness, clients who continuously express violent and dangerous behavior and those who have been recently released from incarceration.
DHS said it is working with other agencies to develop effective protocols and procedures.
The agency’s budget allocates $123.7 million toward security.
Charle, 36, a native of Spain and a mother of two, was shot and killed April 27. West Spruill, 39, a former resident of Project Renewal’s Bronx Boulevard, a homeless shelter at 4380 Bronx Blvd. in the Wakefield section of the Bronx where she was the director, has pleaded not guilty to the murder, according to the Bronx district attorney’s office.
Councilman Andrew Cohen (D-Bronx) said earlier DHS only assigned peace officers to the site when Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office got involved two days after the murder, despite the request he made in February.
But DHS said additional funding was requested for inside the facility, not outside, and that the agency assigned peace officers to the site in response to Cohen’s February request.
In May, the city approved an increase in security funding for the site by $38,285 for fiscal year 2015 and $51,016 for fiscal year 2016. DHS also deployed three peace officers and a supervisor to the site.
The agency said it is evaluating its security efforts at other sites and that it addresses the security concerns of individual facilities once it is made aware of them.
Reach reporter Madina Toure by e-mail at mtour
