He is now looking for housing and medical care. As for Street Watch, the activists say that their presence in the neighborhood with video cameras has already caused the GCP outreach teams to curb their abuse. According to Lisa Daugaard, Litigation Director at the Coalition for the Homeless, both the alleged brutality and the poor wages of the Grand Central Partnership's outreach program are symptoms of a larger problem posed by business improvement districts. While much of what the GCP does may look good at first and may in fact be helpful, in the larger scope of urban politics BIDs are primarily a means by which the business community can detach from, and circumvent, larger movements for social reform. Ultimately BIDs avoid the question of political accountability, which lies at the heart of democracy.
BIDs displace social problems rather than create alternatives.
Few if any of the nation's BIDs actually fund social services. We can't afford it.