Amazon and the homeless: a tale of two Long Island cities
The tech giant’s new hub in New York will be close to a growing shelter zone – but can the city fight homelessness while cultivating the market forces that are pricing people out?
Juan Rivera has lived in Long Island City, in Queens, for a month – but has never been to the part of the neighborhood where Amazon will soon establish its New York City headquarters.
“The only time I leave this side is to go to my program,” says the 28-year-old Puerto Rican native, referring to the methadone clinic he visits in Manhattan five times a week. He spends the rest of his time watching YouTube in his room at his homeless shelter, a former hotel in an enclave of Long Island City known as Blissville.