During a year when homelessness in New York City is at a record high, many people throughout the metropolitan area are in desperate need of winter coats as temperatures drop. Bushwick residents with old coats they’d like to donate to those who can use them don’t even need to leave the neighborhood to support the city’s biggest annual coat drive: two drop-off sites in the area are currently accepting donations, and will continue to do so until Saturday, December 31st.
For 28 years, the vast volunteer network New York Cares has collected coats for the city’s homeless. This year, organizers say that “New York Cares is hoping to collect and distribute 125,000 coats, which represents a record number of requests from its nonprofit and school partners but is estimated to be only a fraction of the total need for coats that exists throughout the city.”
Bushwick’s drop-locations are at the NYPD’s 83rd Precinct at 480 Knickerbocker Avenue (at Bleecker Street, off of the Knickerbocker Avenue stop on the M train, and at the NYPD’s Police Service Area 3 Housing Bureau at 25 Central Avenue, across from Central Green Knoll Park near the Morgan Avenue Stop on the L train (and a few blocks away from Beacon’s Closet—maybe consider dropping your coats at the precinct instead trying to sell them if you’re bringing other second hand clothes to the area soon). Coats for the drive need only be gently used and freshly laundered, not designer or perfectly on trend!
A map of all of the drop-off location city-wide is available here; you can also support the drive by texting the word “COAT” to 41444 to donate $20, or increments of $20, to purchase and deliver new coats. All donations are tax deductible.
Stay warm out there, Bushwick—and if you can, help others do the same!
Featured image: a child receives a new coat. Photo courtesy of New York Cares.
