“It’s important for athletes to talk about mental health because it encourages everyone to talk about it and be more aware of it,” said Cameron Dobbs, a student assistant coach for the University of Miami Hurricanes volleyball team and a former player herself. “Also, athletes need to know they’re not alone and that it’s okay to struggle and learn along the way.”

After gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from some Olympic events and Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open because of mental health concerns and general stress, conversations were started about the importance of athletes taking care of their mental health. 

“I think there’s an under emphasis on mental aspects on the court, like how to focus on your game, but also the health side of things, like making sure you’re taking care of yourself,” said Alex Yang, the captain of the New York University men’s tennis team. “And all that stress off the court feeds into our performance on court, and as captain, I want to address it more on our team.”

Dr. Abraham Chileuitt, a sports neurologist that focuses on concussions in Miami, Florida, said many of his patients often come in with other mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, which could be worsened if they suffered a head injury.

“Everything they do is scrutinized, their performance, their game,” he said. “Unfortunately, a lot of times the scrutiny is more negative than positive.”

While this may be a new media discussion, the mental health problems of athletes have been happening for decades. During the pandemic, student-athletes had both their athletic and academic careers come to a standstill. 

“I got admitted to NYU three weeks before everything shut down in the city,” said Candice Saxod, a swimmer for New York University. “And it disconnected me from my normal life and routine, and for a year I didn’t have classes in person. So, having to go back to in-person is  really tiring, like today I had my first college exam in person, and I completely freaked out.”

But, Saxod is hopeful that things will return to normal once she has time to adapt.

“It’s just small details that you used to get used to again, and those things take time,” said Saxod. “There’s different ways of handling things, and it just takes time.”

Yang was considering quitting tennis earlier in his career to focus on academics and other interests. However, during the pandemic, he had a break from his sport and competitions for months. 

“It’s always good, I think, to get a mental break,” said Yang. “And I think in those four months, there was no stress, no pressure, and I actually grew to love the sport a lot more. The break gave me more perspective and reminded me that it is just a sport and I have to still take care of myself.”

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Nancy George-Michalson, who is the Executive Director at New York Therapy Animals, knows what it feels like to bring a smile to people’s faces with the help of trained therapy dogs.

 “When you are interacting with a therapy dog, it actually brightens the room when you walk in,” George-Michalson said. “The best part is seeing the reactions and knowing that you’ve made a difference just even for a few minutes with somebody.”

George-Michalson has been a volunteer for 19 years, working for and founding the non-profit organization, which aims to help people in places such as healthcare facilities and schools with the assistance of trained, licensed and insured therapy dog teams.

But the impact dogs have on mental health is not only felt with the help of these organizations, people all over the world are helped by their dogs on a daily basis with relationships built on trust, companionship and loyalty. 

In a survey conducted by For Better Mental Health 98 percent of pet owners consider their pet to be a member of the family and 74 percent of  pet owners  reported owning a pet led to better mental health. 

Lindsey Barton, 30, of Hoboken, New Jersey, embraces her rescue dog Marnie. Photo by Jose Balderrama

Maggie Donovan, 30,  described her dog Hope as “the best thing ever to happen to her.” As a person who has been battling through depression and anxiety for the past decade, building a relationship with Hope has really helped her daily routine.

“There is always somebody who is home and excited to see you, because I live alone,” said Donovan. “Especially during COVID too, just having a structure throughout the day and I think that really helped me, it kept me sane.” Donovan said. 

According to the ASPCA in five households adopted a pet during the pandemic, that’s 23 million households. Early in the pandemic there was a waiting list to adopt dogs from shelters.

Lindsey Barton of Hoboken, New Jersey, has also noticed the importance in having to go out everyday in order to walk her dog, Marnie, and attend to her needs.

“It gets you out of the house everyday, ” she said. “I’m forced to go out and walk her even though I’m still working from home and otherwise I probably would have just stayed home, so I think that’s actually a big help in terms of mental health.” 

Barton also said the love of a dog is pure and incomparable. She is amazed by the characteristics that dogs show which allow them to impact peoples’ lives.

“Unconditional love, they are very loyal creatures, she is very sweet, very docile,” Barton said. “She just wants to be happy, she wants everyone to be happy.”

George-Michalson said that the relationships between humans and dogs bring out the “Natural miracle drug for bonding,” Oxytocin. She said these bonds also facilitate other health benefits such as lowering blood pressure, decreasing heart rate, and lowering stress and anxiety levels. 

George-Michalson said that since the pandemic  began, 350 to 400 people have contacted her with an interest in being part of the organization. There is a lot of training involved.

“Their dogs have to meet the requirements and the human end of the leash has to meet the requirements as well,” George-Michalson said. 

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COVID-19 death tolls recently surpassed the 200,000 mark in the United States alone, which has triggered a visceral mental health crisis nationwide. Vulnerable New Yorkers are no exception to the pandemic’s adverse cognitive effects, and many have turned to drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism.

Ellen MacDonald, a clinical social worker and therapist with over 13 years of experience and independent practice says the pandemic can affect your mental health. Photo courtesy of Ellen MacDonald.

Ellen MacDonald, a clinical social worker and therapist with over 13 years of experience and independent practice, said that the pandemic had worsened her clients’ mental illness level.

“I would say that some of my clients who struggled with mental illness and drug and alcohol dependency before the pandemic, struggled even more during the pandemic,” said MacDonald. “At the beginning of the pandemic, there were videos online of some New Yorkers who were struggling with issues of dependency having drug and alcohol Zoom parties.”

MacDonald also said she noticed a higher rate of loneliness, fear, anxiety, and depression since the pandemic hit.

“This may also be related to social unrest, loss of jobs, and the overall economic situation. People are more stressed about those things,” said MacDonald.

The New York City Health Commissioner, Dr. Dave A. Chokshi (@NYCHealthCommr), in a recently tweeted response to the new data report released by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene also addressed the issue. The comprehensive report included data indicating that 44% of NYC adults reported anxiety related to COVID19 while many others reported symptoms of depression in the past two weeks. The report also highlighted resources available to New Yorkers who were struggling mentally.

People in this city have been through so much stress and trauma, and what they’re sharing reflects the difficulty of these recent months. Today @nycHealthy released new data on #COVID19 and New York City: https://t.co/LXPdutmJfL
More data 👇 📈📊📉

— Commissioner Dave A. Chokshi (@NYCHealthCommr) September 22, 2020

In a remote hearing hosted by the New York City Council, Executive Deputy Commissioner at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Dr. Hillary Kunins, said that racial disparities had a lot to do with the health issues that New Yorkers faced during the pandemic.

“Unfortunately, Black, LatinX, and Asian New Yorkers have experienced disproportionate health and social burdens from the pandemic,” said Kunins. The reason for adverse mental health also varies across race and ethnicity.” 

Racial and demographical disparities also play a significant role in New Yorkers’ health issues during the pandemic. Generational lines blur as vulnerable New Yorkers face mental health struggles amid the pandemic, and ethnically diverse New York-based Gen-Zers are also experiencing the brunt of the pandemic. 

Dr. Angela Diaz, Director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, said that the adolescents that she works with reported feeling more overwhelming anxiety and depression than they have ever experienced before. She also said that they tended to be Black and Latino.

“We surveyed young people from ages 13-25, and we noticed that most of them are smoking more marijuana than ever before,” said Diaz. “Also, over 35% of them said that they didn’t have enough food to eat, and about 21% percent of them needed to go to food pantries and churches to get the resources that they needed.”

Diaz also urged people to have more empathy for adolescents during these unusual times.

“We need to understand that the pandemic has had a tremendous effect on young people in terms of their mental health, education, financial status, and sexual health,” said Diaz. “There aren’t enough resources for young people at this time, and we need to do more.”

According to reports from the Kaiser Family Foundation, before the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly one in five of U.S. adults (47 million) reported having a mental illness, which eventually resulted in functional impairment and limited life activities.

Rabbi Anchelle Perl the Chabad Leader of Mineola, New York, believes that despite the pandemic’s toll on the mental health of New Yorker’s, there is hope. Photo Courtesy of Rabbi Perl

Rabbi Anchelle Perl, Chabad Leader of Mineola, New York, said that he observed that people with pre-existing mental health conditions experienced worse symptoms during the pandemic.

“I think the pandemic has created a sense of confusion for people who were already struggling,” he said.“Their base issues were accentuated by it, and when you have more issues to deal with on top of that, it becomes confusing. “As a community leader, I have made a concerted effort to address the situation by creating a sense of community as much as I can to address the problem of loneliness.”

Rabbi Perl also had a sense of hope regarding the mental health epidemic in New Yorkers.

“We just have to take the basic primary guidelines and go with the faith that we will overcome in the end,” he said. “The fact that we are standing strong and moving forward is the greatest form of comfort that we can give ourselves. We are all in this together, and we are all in the same boat.”

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Living adjustments to beat the coronavirus bring about mental health concerns in New York. Governments, nonprofits and individuals work to treat these consequences.

To abate COVID-19’s spread, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and City Mayor Bill de Blasio urged people to remain home if possible. In March, Cuomo signed an executive order that required the state’s non-essential businesses to close “in-office personnel functions.” Many people went remote. They had to work from home. And social distancing’s become a frequent part of day-to-day life.

As people continue to physically isolate themselves to slow COVID-19’s spread, their mental health may come under greater risk.

The elderly face loneliness due to family moving away, retirement, disability or more.

Senior centers have long sought to lessen the loneliness felt by elderly persons. Community programs, activities and meals offer opportunities for older adults to engage with one another and quiet negative thoughts – even if for brief moments.

COVID-19 changed these daily and weekly rituals.

Henry Street Settlement is an organization in Lower Manhattan. It provides an umbrella of services – social, arts and health care programs – to neighborhood residents and other New Yorkers. A chunk of its recipients are part of the senior community.

Yet, many of the organization’s services changed to remote. Updated April 22, Henry Street said the number of its clients that receive Meals on Wheels food grew to over 2,200 people.

It tries to limit face-to-face contact to prevent health risks for its clientele – which includes seniors and immunocompromised individuals.

The organization said it checks on isolated seniors to help ensure they have access to health care resources if needed.

Maria Litwin, who said she arrived in New York from Puerto Rico in the 1950s, is one of the organization’s senior clients. She said she has depression.

Prior to Henry Street’s necessary changes, Litwin recalled engaging in a wide range of programs with fellow seniors. Among the activities, she sewed, did crochet, ate with people, played bingo and attended karaoke.

They helped her quiet negative thoughts. She enjoyed going to the senior center. “It usually made me relax a little bit,” she said.

After Henry Street made critical changes to keep its seniors from getting COVID-19, Litwin’s activities were greatly reduced.

Though she still crochets.

Younger people’s routines changed under COVID-19 as well.

Care providers continue to adjust. Litwin said her social worker at Henry Street, Jeremy Rivera, a man in his 20s, now calls her and his other clients by phone – rather than opting for face-to-face meetings. She added that a nurse calls her too.

In speaking about phone calls and follow-ups with clients, Rivera said, “I like to describe it as ‘being a person.’”

Also, Rivera noted that he has resources to offer or reference for the clients he speaks with.

However, communication by phone can create challenges. Calls offer little body language as cues for Rivera to observe. He said he can understand why a senior might not answer a phone call. They might be out of town. They might be taking a nap.

However, these new unknowns can create anxiety for Rivera, who wants to make sure the seniors are okay. Concerns sometimes weighed on his mind.

“I used to take it home quiet often,” he said.

Rivera takes precautions to not catch COVID-19 or spread it to his clients. While he remains committed to doing them, they sometimes create anxiety or affect his mental health.

Even though he largely conducts his work from Henry Street’s office, his extra caution begins early into the workday.

He takes a series of trains to travel from the Bronx to work in Lower Manhattan. And he tries to limit physical contact on the subway to lower his risk of getting COVID-19.  “I do my best not to touch those poles,” he said.

Like employees at other organizations, COVID-19 has caused Rivera to make hard decisions. In one phone call, he had to turn away the daughter of an elderly woman who attends Henry Street’s senior center. He said he learned that the daughter had the coronavirus.

“She had mentioned that her mom was all she had left. She started to cry. I tried to console her over the phone. To make sure that she didn’t leave or end the call empty-handed,” Rivera said, “I [gave] her the number for NYC Well” – a free and confidential support service from the city for, including, mental health.

Near Henry Street is New York University. Students at the school face mental health consequences of the pandemic as well.

Shannon Hu is a junior at NYU and a member of Active Minds, a nonprofit organization that sets out to raise mental health awareness.

On March 16, New York University’s president sent an email indicating that classes and examinations will be remote through spring semester’s end.

Student residencies at NYU’s New York campus were to close temporarily, the email added, and “students must be out by no later than March 22, and preferably within 48 hours.”

However, Hu lives in an apartment in NYC. She studies neuroscience and hopes to become a doctor. She said many of her classes for the pre-medicine track include labs – hands-on learning. COVID-19 and NYU’s decision to take classes remote created uncertainty, which then created anxiety.

“One of my big stresses was that I wouldn’t be getting the right experiences for pre-medicine, Hu said, “and that having online labs would be a sub-par experience – or it would look subpar to wherever I’d decide to apply to.”

She noted that she also works at a nursing home. She said that the home takes special precautions to reduce COVID-19 risks for senior residents. And she explained that the home currently bars visitors, with the exception of special cases.

“It’s pretty sad,” she said. “They’re mostly in their rooms now.”

“Some of them don’t really understand why no one is visiting them,” Hu later added. “We’re trying our best to connect them with FaceTime and Skype.”

Two of Hu’s freshman schoolmates – also members of Active Minds – grew anxious too. Both left for their homes outside NYC.

One of them, Aliana Whelan, said she used her desk at her on-campus job to focus and get work done. Now she’s home.

The other classmate, Alyssa Goldberg returned home to a loved-one with notable risk to COVID-19. She said her father has a respiratory condition called reactive airway disease and she had to take extra precautions.

Yet, this uncommon period also highlights ways that could bolster mental health.

Although the Henry Street helps provide mental health services, Litwin said she remains a client of Gouverneur hospital in Manhattan for therapy. However, she also said that Henry Street helps her obtain access to Medicaid.

NYC Well remains in place.

New York State offers the Emotional Support Line, which provides free and confidential mental health support. In addition, in a press release on March 25, Governor Cuomo announced 6,000 mental health workers agreed to volunteer to provide online services for people.

There are tools at the university level.

NYU said that many of its medical and mental health services went virtual. In an email, it pointed to its Wellness Exchange, a 24-hour mental health service through phone and online.

And there are individual tools or ways to boost one’s mental health.

Several interviewees said socializing helps. Phone and online are ways to do so.

Hu noted that she has Headspace, an app that provides guided mediation. And Rivera said he meditates.

“I try to stay strong,” he went on to say. “Listening to my jazz, meditating and doing what I can to take mental breaks away from the coronavirus.”

Hu and Rivera try to limit news consumption. “Try to pay attention to the news in the morning,” Rivera said. “But that’s it. Not have it on 24/7.”

Several interviewees expressed that some form of structure helps them. While a person remains in their room or home, their self-discipline could weather. Both little activity or face-to-face interactions could have negative consequences.

Hu said she makes a schedule to help her stay disciplined and on top of tasks. She recommends the tool as a possible solution for others who seek more regimented or organized days.

“If you don’t have a structured routine, I think it’s very easy for your work to overwhelm you.”

Brian Demo is a NYU graduate journalism student in the Magazine and Digital Storytelling program

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But since the spread of coronavirus across the nation, people are in lockdown inside their homes to slow down the spread of COVID-19. An increased use of platforms like Zoom has allowed therapy to be accessible during the pandemic. In New York state, about 6,000 health professionals have volunteered at a hotline initiated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to support residents with their mental health. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services waived penalties for violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, meaning healthcare providers can provide more telehealth services through remote communication without fear of violating privacy. 

But even with online resources, mental health issues are proven to be exacerbated by social isolation. The entire country has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and nearly half of Americans said their well being has been negatively impacted by the threat of coronavirus. 

When lockdown started in New York City, Armstrong felt her anxiety increasing. She said that it’s helpful to use remote communication, but that staying inside is still hurting her mental health. 

“I think of it as being the fact that I’m quarantined is like when you go to sleep at night and it’s quiet and the thoughts all race to your head,” she said. “That’s kind of how it is all day because you have nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. Nothing to do with that time.” 

She said that her anxiety is worse because she can’t go outside and see her friends. 

“With anxiety, when you’re quarantined things that you would normally do are a bit harder,” she said. “I’m going stir-crazy because even though I can walk on the beach I miss seeing my friends. I haven’t seen my friends in a while and we can skype and zoom, but I don’t think it’s the same.”

Since  March 22,  the beginning of New York on PAUSE, people have isolated themselves inside their homes.. According to a recent survey, 71 percent of Americans said they are worried that social isolation will harm people’s mental health. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), anxiety worsens when there are factors of instability, lost income, or a loved one getting sick. Loneliness is also a trigger for anxious feelings. 

“I want to go outside and see my friends and not be in my house all the time, Armstrong said.“I am just trying to overcome everything, and not lose my mind. But it’s not the easiest when you’re stressed out.” 

Lisa Damour, a psychologist and practicing therapist, said that mental health issues can intensify during a global crisis. 

“People are feeling very isolated,” Damour said. “I think the problem is mostly self isolation. People want to connect with one another, and sometimes when people are left alone, their minds and their thoughts can get the best of them.”

She said mental health has worsened because people feel helpless and that they can’t do anything to change the situation. She said that distractions are helpful for people struggling with depression and anxiety. 

“Distractions like the show Tiger King can be good, cause it’s so distracting from the entire COVID-19 quarantine,” she said. “People should be using positive coping mechanisms, such as reaching out to other people, taking care of themselves, and finding happy distractions.” 

She said that even though teletherapy isn’t the same as a physical therapist, her clients are happy to have the option. 

“A lot of my clients appreciate Zoom therapy, because they are happy to have this connection rather than nothing,” Damour said.

And some New Yorkers are saying that their mental health has not been affected by isolation but by the sudden changes to their lives. 

“I had a lot of anxiety that first weekend of spring break,” said Isabelle Levy, a New York University graduate student. “During that time, I felt like the rug was just completely pulled out from under me. It was partly because at that point, there was so much that was unknown and there were all these big shifts happening. All of a sudden, we were pulled out of our internships and classes and nobody knew what that was going to look like.” 

She said that even though she has anxiety, she distracts herself by remembering that everyone else is going through the same global crisis.

“Having the outside worlds match the anxiety has allowed me to sort of decompress a little bit’” she said. “We all are separated, physically and we are all social distancing. This is a universal experience right now, we are all in this together. So there is a universal solidarity.” 

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The first day of fall in New York City was today and it was marked by quintessential autumnal weather. The sun was in the sky, accompanied by low humidity and a crisp breeze. It was the perfect day for Community Access, a mental health and supportive housing nonprofit, to host a tenant bike ride on Governors Island.

“I haven’t been on a bike in over 30 years,” said Antoinette Whiting, 51, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. “I spent a lot of my youth doing things that weren’t too good, so I’ve never been here. I didn’t even know (Governors Island) existed, and it’s just really awesome.”

Whiting is one of the thousands of people Community Access has served in New York City. The nonprofit’s mission is to expand opportunities for people living with mental health concerns to recover from trauma and discrimination.

“I was in the shelter and I was going through a pretty dark area in my life,” said Timothy Davis, 28, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. “Community Access definitely helped me. They helped my self-esteem, they helped me job wise and most of all they got me a place I could call home.”

Through the Housing as Healthcare model, health and wellness activities were integrated into Community Access tenants’ everyday lives. The bike rides began two years ago.

Community Access’ partnership with Citi Bike helped to make this bike-share event possible. Through the partnership, Community Access received 30 Citi Bike keys to use wherever bikes are available for staff members to lead group rides.

“This is not something that our tenants may have gotten to do otherwise,” said Rica Bryan, 31, Community Access’ Health and Wellness Coordinator. “People can choose to use the Citi Bikes, or explore the island on foot.”

Timothy Davis, 28 of Crown Heights, Brooklyn was excited to be on a Citi Bike. He participated in the Community Access bike ride on Governors Island today. Photo by Lauren Garry

While this was the first year of the partnership between Community Access and Citi Bike, today’s event was not the first tenant bike ride they’ve hosted on Governors Island.

“The first time I was overcome with enjoyment,” said Davis. “I’m super stoked. This is a great day to be out here. It’s beautiful. “

Davis’ excitement was palpable. He smiled, skipped and ran around with enthusiasm, and even tried some tricks on his Citi Bike.

“This is special because there’s a whole lot of negative things going on right now and for us to come together as different people from Community Access, to come together and share this excellent experience is totally awesome,” said Davis.

Bryan described the part of the day she most looked forward to as “sharing in the joy of being together, being in a really beautiful place, and gathering our Community Access community.”

Eugene Smith, 61, of Morris Heights in the Bronx was happy to be out in the fresh air and having stability in his life.

“I’ve been with Community Access now for nine years, and until now, I’ve never lived in a place for nine years in my entire life consistently,” he said

Tenants and employees worked like a family. They helped each other put on helmets, adjust bike seats, and even to balance on the bikes.

“We’re all in this together, to figure out how to support each other,” said Bryan. “I’m getting connected to some really wonderful people who haven’t always had opportunities to thrive or live to their full potential, so I feel great to be with them today.”

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Around 6 p.m. on a breezy overcast Saturday evening, Jose Ramirez was getting ready to pick up the day’s heroin after several hours of panhandling in Washington Heights.

“Sometimes it take five minutes, sometimes it takes 45 minutes,” Ramirez said, explaining how long it takes to get the $30 to $40 for each day’s supply of drugs and food. “Sometimes it takes two hours.”

Ramirez, 36, is one of the several thousand homeless New Yorkers who have ruled out spending nights in the city’s shelters, preferring instead to take their chances on the streets and subways. The unsheltered homeless struggle with substance abuse issues and mental health issues , said Isaac McGinn, spokesman for the Homeless Services department.

McGinn said these issues make street homeless a uniquely challenging group to get off the street.

Beginning in 2016, the government of Mayor Bill de Blasio started Home-Stat, a program intended to provide daily outreach to street homeless and develop individualized plans for their eventual movement to a shelter or housing, said McGinn.

“It can take anywhere from one dozen to more than two hundred contacts to bring street homeless New Yorkers indoors,” he said.

Around 690 New Yorkers were helped off the street from March to October 2016.

Under Home-Stat, McGinn said, the city doubled the number of city outreach workers from 191 to 387. The outreach workers partner with existing homeless shelters and identify individuals for placement into drug rehabs, mental health facilities or explore possible transitional housing opportunities. Any homeless who appear to be a threat to themselves or others would be hospitalized.

But accepting the outreach efforts is voluntary and the homeless can’t be forced to utilize services or stay in a shelter, McGuinn said. Despite the city’s efforts, some of the street homeless are reluctant to move into shelters, citing safety and sanitary conditions, among other issues the facilities sometimes have.

“People get into fights in the shelters,” Ramirez said, “You never know what can happen to you.”

Instead, Ramirez spends each night in a sleeping bag underneath trees and other foliage in a closed-off area beside the Trans-Manhattan Expressway.

According to the New York Department of Homeless Services, the city’s homeless population has continued to rise over the past decade. In January 2017, more than 62,000 people slept in homeless shelters – 24,000 more than the roughly 38,000 people who were housed in shelters at the end of 2010. The numbers of homeless are now at the highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

In addition to the sheltered population, around 2,800 people, like Ramirez, sleep on the street each night, McGinn said.

Ramirez, who was born in Puerto Rico and settled in the Bronx with his mother when he was 15, has been living on the streets for seven years. During that time, day-to-day life has been a battle for survival and a focused effort to find funds for the day’s heroin to keep withdrawal symptoms at bay.

Symptoms of heroin withdrawal include muscle aches, nausea, sneezing, cold sweats and anxiety.

“Every time I wake up, I’m just thinking about getting $20 to get straight,” said Ramirez, while walking along Highbridge Park in black sweatpants and a navy blue raincoat. “Without the heroin, when you be a junkie, you can’t move. You don’t want to talk to people, you don’t want to do nothing.”

Ramirez said he started selling drugs when he was 17. By 19, he was using regularly.

“I started smoking weed. I started hanging out. Start working, making a little bit of money, and I ended with the wrong people – started selling drugs,” he said. “I was selling cocaine, then I started sniffing it, hanging out. Then I started selling dope, bagging it up – I caught a habit. I couldn’t get straight. Then the dope I was getting was garbage. I couldn’t get high so I started shooting.”

As Ramirez spoke, he stopped often to recall details and at times, struggled to articulate a timeline of events.

According to Ramirez, his mother passed away in 2010. Unable to make the rent payments from the apartment and trying to sustain a heroin addiction, Ramirez reluctantly went out to Washington Heights and found himself a place among the winding expressways to set himself up.

He chose to stay in Washington Heights, rather than the Bronx, where he had been living with his mother for around 14 years.

“This is where I used to come to cop and where I had all my friends,” he said.

Ramirez recalled how he felt the first time he had to panhandle to support himself.

“There was my friend – I was sick so I didn’t have no money – but he only had $10 and he said, ‘Yo, I’m going to go get straight,’” Ramirez said.

“I’d be like, ‘Yo, can you help me out today?’” Ramirez remembered. His friend suggested he grab a sign and panhandle next to the traffic. Ramirez countered that he was “jones,” or in pain from drug withdrawal, and passersby wouldn’t give him money.

Eventually, Ramirez said he was in too much pain and did what he had to do. He grabbed a sign and planted himself along the entrance to the Trans-Manhattan Expressway, near 179th Street. After around 40 minutes, he had collected $20 and purchased two bags of heroin. Since that day in 2009, Ramirez said panhandling has been the primary way of supporting himself.

Homeless panhandlers in Washington Heights is a familiar sight to residents.

Willie Blain, 57, has lived on the Washington Heights streets since 1989. He panhandles there to buy drugs.

Willie Blain, 57, stands alongside the Trans-Manhattan Expressway near his encampment in Washington Heights. Blain is among several thousand of New York’s homeless population that choose to live on the streets instead of entering the shelter system. Photo by Razi Syed.

He spoke quickly and confidently, with a rapid-fire, staccato cadence, but occasionally mumbled and veered fluidly from topic to topic. Blain said he struggled with schizophrenia.

“I always had been in the streets – wintertime, I was in the streets; summertime, I was in the streets,” he said. “Always in Washington Heights – these are like my stomping grounds.”

Alongside the Trans-Manhattan Expressway, Blain has carved out a living place for himself with a black computer chair cardboard boxes and plywood arranged together in a small fenced off area. The road barrier provides a small area of shelter from the rain.

“The thing with other people is –- I know how to hustle so good that they act like they like me, but they don’t like me,” Blain said. “They hate me ‘cause they can’t do like I do. I make money, a lot more money than they do. I panhandle. I help people with their cars, if they have a flat tire. I can do just about anything.”

Blain said he avoids the other homeless in Washington Heights, preferring to spend his time alone.
“I have trouble with people because they like me, want to be like me, but can’t be like me,” he said.

The New York winter, brutal and resolutely unforgiving with nighttime temperatures routinely dropping below freezing, are the most difficult times for the street homeless. During the 2013-2014 winter, the latest year for which statistics are available, six homeless people died of cold-related weather.

Ramirez said he suspects the heroin he uses daily helps him and other street homeless cope with the frigid weather.

“Most of the homeless out here are heroin addicts,” Ramirez said. “People be like, ‘How you survive out here in the wintertime?’ “I’ll be thinking that the heroin keep me warm.“Like as soon as you do the dope, you don’t feel the cold.”

Life on the street is largely a solitary struggle.

“Most of the time I be by myself ‘cause I always ended up getting fucked over,” he said. “I got tired of looking out for people – ‘yo, I’m sick,’ or ‘yo, I need a dollar to get over here.’ Most of these people, they never look out for you,” Ramirez said. “The heroin addicts here aren’t like before – you could be sick and someone would come and get you straight. Now it’s rough.”

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At the Iyengar Yoga Institute in Chelsea on Saturday afternoons, participants spread green mats on the bright hardwood floor and perform a variety of poses and stretches with help from a guide.

But what would otherwise appear to be a normal yoga class is unique because of its distinct clientele: the class serves entirely veterans.

Yoga for Veterans, taught by instructor Adam Vitolo, is a free 90-minute class designed specifically for participants who have served in the military. Veterans in the class say that it can have a variety of beneficial effects, including relief from mental symptoms brought on by post-traumatic stress disorder.

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