New York City’s unsheltered population – already facing significant health and security challenges due to the COVID-19 shutdown – have faced even more hardship during the curfews imposed over the George Floyd-inspired protests that have rocked the city.

As reported by The Appeal, New Yorkers without shelter were particularly susceptible to violence during curfew enforcement by the New York City Police Department.

Many unsheltered people have used fliers created by The Legal Aid Society to self-identify their status to police seeking to enforce the curfews. The fliers explain their rights and the exemption their unhoused status confers.

The fliers were created over concerns that the police themselves may not be aware that unsheltered New Yorkers are exempt from curfew enforcement. The Legal Aid Society and other public defenders have called for private hotel rooms be made available for them, but the de Blasio administration has been slow to respond to the overwhelming needs of the city’s unhoused people.