Police report that a man broke several windows of a Capital One Bank branch located at Bainbridge Avenue and East 206th Street in Norwood on Wednesday morning, Feb. 9, and was subsequently arrested.

 

The NYPD said officers responded to the incident, which took place inside the vestibule of the bank, located at 3159 Bainbridge Avenue, and which houses a number of ATM machines on Wednesday at 5.20 a.m.

 

They said it was reported to police that a man had broken multiple ATM vestibule windows, using a hammer. He was arrested and charged with two counts of criminal mischief, as well as possession of burglary tools. A hammer was recovered at the scene.

 

The man has since been identified as Clarence Anderson 35, of Richmond Plaza in the Morris Heights section of the borough.

 

A visit to the branch on Feb. 10 saw a large window area, facing Bainbridge Avenue boarded up where the windows had been smashed, though the bank’s other windows nearby appeared intact. The line of ATM machines inside the vestibule all appeared to be working and did not appear to have been damaged.

 

Norwood News reached out to the Capital One Bank press team for comment on Thursday. We did not receive an immediate response.

 

Police did not report any injuries, following the incident.

 

One resident told Norwood News she was informed by a source that the man in question had been experiencing homelessness and had previously been seen by the resident in the ATM vestibule area earlier that day.

 

She said the man had reportedly been informed that he could not stay in the vestibule. It is unknown if this is what may have triggered the incident. “Thank God no one got hurt,” the resident said. “The quality of life has changed in this neighborhood and it saddens me greatly as a longtime resident.”

According to NYC Department of Homeless Services (DHS), which falls under NYC Department of Social Services (DSS), there are more than 15,600 people from The Bronx who are currently experiencing homelessness and who live in transitional housing facilities in areas all across the City.

 

Transitional housing is designed to assist those who are transitioning out of a situation where they may have previously been living in different shelters but are moving into a more stable setting. An additional 14,300 people experiencing homelessness live in emergency shelters across The Bronx itself.

 

As previously reported, DHS officials said the process of encouraging people who are experiencing homelessness to accept shelter accommodation or other types of transitional housing is a sensitive one and not always straightforward. It can involve substantial negotiation with clients over time in order to build trust. It is unknown if this was the case in this situation, as it was not formally confirmed by official sources if the man in question was indeed experiencing homelessness.

 

Norwood News reached out to the NYPD to ask. We did not receive an immediate response. We also reached out to DSS-DHS to inquire about the man’s circumstances prior to the incident, but did not receive an immediate response.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Women in Need (WIN), the largest provider of shelter and supportive services to homeless families in New York City, called for the City’s administration to reform its Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing (PATH) intake center, located in The Bronx and managed by DHS, as well as the application process for families experiencing homelessness.

 

The move follows the release of a new audit by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander that identifies what WIN called “glaring problems,” [with PATH], and WIN officials said the audit comes almost two years after WIN, itself, called on the comptroller’s office to investigate what it called PATH’s failures.

 

Christine C. Quinn, president & CEO of WIN since 2015, a former speaker of New York City Council, and former mayoral candidate, said for too long, the city-run, intake center (PATH) that exists to welcome and help homeless families, has operated as a barrier to shelter. “That’s why we called for the comptroller’s office to audit PATH — because we should be helping women and children in need, not repeatedly traumatizing them,” Quinn said in a statement on Friday.

 

“This audit is an important step toward fixing our shelter system. The results reinforce what countless homeless families have been telling WIN for years, providing concrete evidence and hard data to show just how broken the PATH intake center is,” Quinn added. “With a new mayor in office, who is committed to ending homelessness, this report should serve as a clarion call for the Adams administration to fundamentally reform PATH. Our families deserve pathways to shelter, support, services, and housing, not bureaucratic roadblocks.”

Among the most scathing of the comptroller’s audit findings was the fact that 14 out of 21 families who were initially rejected by DHS, were reportedly eventually found to be eligible for shelter. However, according to Quinn, they had to submit, on average, 15 reapplications before being eventually being found eligible. Norwood News has reached out to DSS-DHS for comment on this point. We did not receive an immediate response.

 

In 2019, Win released The Forgotten Face of Homelessness: Housing Instability, which detailed what it called “the needlessly complicated intake system for homeless families.” Currently, according to WIN, families seeking shelter — including children — are required to travel to the PATH center in The Bronx, and undergo a full day of screening. Quinn said WIN found that 45 percent of families admitted to shelter had “shockingly” been rejected by PATH at least once.

 

According to WIN officials, two years later, the organization highlighted similarly troubling data in a policy brief that found that in just one month, over 460 families found eligible for shelter had previously been denied it by DHS. WIN officials said the comptroller’s audit reinforces these findings and shows the need to reform PATH has only grown.

 

They added that earlier this month, WIN led a dozen shelter providers, advocates, and legal organizations in calling on the Adams administration to reform PATH, starting with making pandemic-era changes permanent. They said these changes include not forcing children to join their parents at PATH, and allowing families who were initially found ineligible for shelter to re-apply from the shelter they were conditionally placed at, rather than requiring them to pack up their belongings and reappear at PATH in person.

 

In the meantime, Mayor Eric Adams recently announced a plan to remove homeless people from the City’s subway system and into sheltered accommodation, saying, “It is cruel and inhumane to allow unhoused people to live on the subway, and unfair to paying passengers and transit workers who deserve a clean, orderly, and safe environment.” He added, “The days of turning a blind eye to this growing problem are over, and I look forward to collaborating with the state, the federal government, TWU, advocates, and law enforcement to solve this challenge. It will take time, but our work starts now.”

 

A person accused of a crime is innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.