It seemed like representatives from almost every agency were gathered around heading underground in Jamaica.

“I guess we should give everyone a quick introduction,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards. 

He brought them all together - NYPD, MTA, the Department of Homeless Services and more - to discuss issues in a Queens neighborhood on Friday.

He was focusing on homelessness and crime. NY1 joined them on an exclusive tour.

“Sometimes they don’t accept the services, and they’d rather be here, and we try to do our best to have them accept our services, but it’s difficult to convince them to accept that services,” said NYPD captain Daniel Orlando.

They, in this case, are people experiencing homelessness. This tour from the Sutphin Boulevard station to Jamaica Center comes several weeks after the mayor unveiled his subway safety plan to remove homeless people from the subway.

And it follows an investigation by NY1 on homelessness and mental illness, which focused in part on this part of the sprawling subway system.

Above ground, the borough president is trying to combat crime in the transit hub. The local precinct commander said the three-block radius is the busiest in the precinct. 

“Where we’re standing now, is the busiest sector in the command,” said Inspector Vincent Tavalaro, the commanding officer at the 103rd precinct. “It drives our robberies, grand larcenies, felony assaults because of the volume over here.” 

So the borough president is trying to make it a priority. He said it’s why we were there. 

“So one, flying the flag in the need to make sure we have more resources dedicated to some of our most problematic train stations,” said Richards.

Which he says includes Jamaica Center - and its surrounding area. Moments later, the group passes two homeless encampments. The borough president said sanitation should be involved, and called it unacceptable.

“I know it’s delicate,” Richards says. “It hurts my heart.”

Beyond the rise in homelessness in this area, the NYPD inspector said index crime for 2022 is up almost 70% for the precinct. 

“If you branch out a couple blocks, we’ll be pulling guns left and right,” Tavalaro said. “Here, we got one shooting for the year. We got two over there.”

For now, solutions to these issues don’t seem quite clear.

“We’d always like to have more resources,” Tavalaro said. “But as the police department, as commanding officer, we’d always love more officers.”

Donovan added: “So, overall, steps moving forward is to make sure we do get an increase in support from PD for end of the line stations like this one.”