NYC’s Ambulance Response Crisis: The Hidden Cost of Violence in Homeless Shelters
As emergency response times rise 41%, repeated calls from troubled city-funded shelters may be contributing to the growing burden on FDNY, EMS, hospitals, and taxpayers.
NEW YORK CITY - A recent FOX 5 New York report revealed that ambulance response times for life-threatening emergencies have increased by 41%, raising serious concerns about staffing shortages, increasing emergency calls, and the ability of FDNY Emergency Medical Services to protect New Yorkers.
But one contributing factor deserves greater scrutiny: the repeated emergency-service demand generated by violent and inadequately supervised homeless shelters operated with public funding.
The Borden Avenue Veterans Residence in Long Island City provides a troubling example.
Records obtained through Freedom of Information requests document 1,365 emergency calls between August 2024 and December 2025, averaging nearly three calls every day. These included 879 ambulance cases, 240 emotionally disturbed person calls, 73 overdose-related calls, and 75 assaults.
Operated by the Institute for Community Living (ICL) under contract with the NYC Department of Homeless Services (DHS), Borden Avenue receives more than $9 million annually in operating funding. Yet the documented volume of medical emergencies, assaults, behavioral-health crises, and overdoses raises serious questions about the effectiveness of its management and oversight.
An independent financial analysis by the Veterans Justice Project estimates that emergency responses associated with Borden Avenue could represent $2.2 million to $3.5 million in police, ambulance, emergency-room, and hospitalization resources over just sixteen months. These are modeled estimates, not verified government expenditures.
These costs are not reflected in the shelter's operating budget. Instead, they may be absorbed by FDNY, NYPD, public hospitals, Medicaid, Medicare, and other healthcare systems.
A Public Safety Problem Beyond the Shelter Walls
Every ambulance responding to a violent confrontation, overdose, or preventable medical crisis at a homeless shelter is potentially unavailable to another New Yorker experiencing a heart attack, stroke, or other life-threatening emergency.
This does not mean shelter residents should be denied emergency services. They deserve the same protection as every other New Yorker. Rather, it raises the question of why publicly funded shelter operators are not being held accountable for recurring conditions that may contribute to preventable emergencies.
The problem extends beyond Borden Avenue. The City's homeless shelter system warrants a comprehensive examination of emergency-call frequency, violence, overdoses, staffing, security, and the financial consequences of repeated emergency responses. Borden Avenue's records demonstrate the need for such an investigation, although comparable data from other shelters would be necessary to determine the systemwide impact.
The City Must Address Demand, Not Just Response Times
On October 20, the NYC Council's Committees on Fire and Emergency Management and Hospitals are holding a joint oversight hearing on ambulance response times.
Increasing EMS staffing, improving compensation, and expanding ambulance availability are essential. But these measures alone cannot resolve the problem if the City continues to overlook potentially preventable emergencies originating from facilities it funds and oversees.
The Council should require DHS to disclose emergency calls, ambulance dispatches, hospital transports, assaults, overdoses, and related public expenditures at contracted homeless shelters.
New York City cannot solve its ambulance response-time crisis simply by putting more ambulances on the streets while failing to investigate the conditions that repeatedly send them to the same locations.
The safety of shelter residents, emergency responders, and the surrounding community depends upon addressing both sides of this crisis.