Chinatown killings focus spotlight on New York's homeless

Last year, 133,284 homeless men, women and children slept in premises provided by the New York City municipal shelter system, the organization said.

The mayor wants to open 90 new shelters by 2022, especially for men, and these would include mental health services. His administration has opened only 27 shelters to date, in part because residents in some areas have protested or even sued to block them from opening, fearing for their safety.

Giselle Routhier, policy director for the Coalition for the Homeless, said in a statement, "New York City and New York State must build enough deeply subsidized housing for homeless New Yorkers to match the scale of need."

Dozens of churches across the city also help the homeless. Some collect secondhand clothing for those in need, while others run soup kitchens, food pantries and shelters.

Arianna Fishman, media secretary for the Department of Homeless Services, said the city authorities and the department's street action teams were monitoring Chinatown closely.

Mental health outreach services for the homeless in Chinatown will be increased. Psychiatrists and clinicians from the city's Department of Health and its mental health program will perform street evaluations and provide substance abuse resources to the homeless, officials said.

As Chinatown residents sought to come to terms with the deaths of the four homeless men, a community vigil was held on Oct 8.

Omar Robinson, 50, who is homeless and lives on the streets near Chinatown, said he had met two of the men who died and even shared a drink with them. He described them as immigrants who were undocumented and could not work, so they lived in "misery."

A day after the murders, he said: "All of the homeless people are scared. They're fearful because it can happen to anyone. There's a lot of people out here with mental health and anger issues. Unless something is done, it will happen again."

Kong Wenzheng in New York contributed to this story.