Mayor Tells 18K City Workers To Report NYC's Homeless To 311

NEW YORK CITY — More than 18,000 city workers have been told to notify social services when they spot one the almost 4,000 New Yorkers who sleep on city streets, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday.

De Blasio announced Thursday the launch of Outreach NYC, a new program which will train workers from five city departments to report homeless people to a social services joint command center via 311.

The new initiative comes as the city grapples with a record homelessness and just one month after Randy Santos allegedly beat four other homeless men to death in Chinatown.

“We cannot attempt to address this issue in a vacuum," said de Blasio. "Outreach NYC is our all-hands-on-deck approach to bring even more people in off the streets.”

Workers from buildings, fire, health and mental hygiene, parks and sanitation departments will be able to send detailed information to outreach workers who will try to connect homeless people with what services the city can offer, according to a press release.

The city will also spend $19 million on hire 180 homeless outreach workers to build a team of more than 550, officials said.

Dr. Raul Perea-Henze, the soon-to-be new deputy mayor to oversee health and human services and President Obama's assistant secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs, will direct the program and former, according to the New York Times.

Homelessness has reached record numbers during de Blasio's administration with about 14 percent of the nation's homeless population calling New York City home.

Approximately 78,676 homeless are in New York City, according to a 2018 report from Department of Housing and Urban Development's Annual Homeless Assessment Report, giving it the largest homeless population for a major city.