Jewish students will participate in the fifth annual HOPE, the Homeless Outreach Population Estimate tonight, Monday, January 29th. Organized by Hillel’s Social Action Chair, Abbe Pick, these students will join other program participants to count the number of men and women living on the streets without homes and conduct surveys as a part of a larger New York City effort.
Some NYU volunteers will be meeting at the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life: Hillel at NYU at 7 East 10th Street at 9pm to grab snacks, meet up with other NYU-Hillel team volunteers, and hear from a member of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. Other students who cannot volunteer all night are invited to hear this speaker as well. The event is posted to Facebook.
All teams will gather at 10:30pm and be sent to various locations throughout the city to do their work between midnight and 4am. If staying awake and attending classes all day afterwards isn’t enough, the NYC Department of Homeless Services will be placing paid decoys around the city to help test the effectiveness of the homeless count figures. This will be conducted independently by researchers from Columbia University.