A Safe Heaven from the Hell the Homeless Crisis

It doesn’t take much more than anecdotal evidence to notice the homelessness crisis in New York City. This year the Coalition for The Homeless, a nonprofit advocacy group, reported that New York City’s levels of homeless residents have reached their highest numbers since the 1930s’ Great Depression era, with “60,252 homeless people, including 19,310 homeless children, sleeping each night in New York City’s main municipal shelter system” in September. The housing market in the city combines high demand, inflated prices and low supply. Between soaring rents, the continued COVID-19 pandemic and the current migrant crisis, those numbers may only get worse in the next year. Reported by The New York Times this month, “About 3,400 people were living in streets and subways in January, according to an annual estimate that is often criticized as an undercount.”

On Site Opera, a performance group who utilize changing, unusual venues to bring accessibility, equity and diversity to the art of opera is pairing with Chelsea’s Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen (the largest in Manhattan) for a production of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” by Italian composer and librettist Gian Carlo Menotti. Inspired by The Adoration of The Magi, the one-act opera will feature both renowned opera soloists and musicians and a Shepherds Chorus composed of New York residents who have experienced homelessness and food scarcity first hand.

“Amahl and the Night Visitors” will be performed at Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen in New York, N.Y., on December 8 through 10. Audiences are asked to bring a non-perishable food donation.

Photo by B.A. Van Sise

Photo by B.A. Van Sise

Photo by B.A. Van Sise