New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) says it is “disgusting” and “disrespectful to essential workers” that homeless people are sleeping in subway cars in New York City amid the coronavirus outbreak.
During his press conference on Tuesday, Cuomo held up a copy of the front page of the New York Daily News which featured a picture of homeless people sleeping on subway cars.
“The front page is a picture of subway car filled with homeless people and their belongings,” Cuomo said. “That is disgusting what’s happening on those subway cars. It is disrespectful to the essential workers who need to ride the subway system.”
“They deserve better, and they will have better,” he added.
He went to say that public transportation is “vital” for essential workers and decried unsanitary conditions of public transportation across the state. Additionally, he called for a “clean” public transportation system that is disinfected.
He continued:
“It’s not even safe for the homeless people to be on trains. No face masks. You have this whole outbreak. We are concerned about homeless people, so we let them stay on the trains without protection in this epidemic of the Covid virus? We have to do better than that and we will.”
Watch the video below:
In Syracuse giving my daily briefing on #Coronavirus. Watch Live: https://t.co/IDe0wLJQZr
— Archive: Governor Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 28, 2020
While New York implemented a stay at home order to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, homeless people went underground and have begun to sleep on subway cars, as IJR has previously reported.