Monday, November 8, 2021

Documenting the city's 'clean-up' along Tompkins Square Park on 7th Street

Photos by Stacie Joy (click on images for a larger view)

On Friday afternoon, a Department of Homeless Services-led entourage, featuring the Department of Sanitation, the Parks Enforcement Patrol and the NYPD, conducted a "clean-up" in and along Tompkins Square Park.

Several posted notices, dated in late October and early November, detailed what would be taking place, a process that most of the residents — a number ranging from 10 to 25 at any given time — have experienced while sheltering along Seventh Street between Avenue A and Avenue B late this summer and early fall. 

The flyers also offer information about DHS shelter services and how to apply online for various grants...
EVG contributor Stacie Joy was there to document the proceedings. There were two sweeps — one on Seventh Street where nearly a dozen makeshift tent encampments have arrived since the late summer ... and the other inside the Park, where the people who had been congregating at the now-closed chess tables have moved.
The people staying on Seventh Street did everything themselves with trash bags and other items provided by the city: They cleaned up their areas, threw out some garbage, struck their tents and waited it out across the street... all under the supervision of the various city agencies... 
The clean-up went on mostly without incident. One man, clearly agitated, hurled insults at the Parks Enforcement Patrol and NYPD while filming them. They did not respond to his tirade, and he eventually stopped.
Stacie spoke with several of the people who have been living along Seventh Street. (She also had their permission to take photos.) 

They reported the same problems that we've heard countless times: the shelters aren't safe, they can't be with their partners and their personal belongings get stolen or destroyed. 

The people Stacie talked with said they continue to feel safer on the street than inside a city-run shelter. According to an April report by Coalition for the Homeless titled "View From The Street:"
"Shelters are considered by many homeless individuals as providing an unacceptably low level of personal security. The incidence of theft, physical attack, or other types of violations in the shelters — whether experienced, witnessed, or simply rumored — clearly contributes to the perception of the shelter system as chaotic and unsafe."

This article at The City documents why some people would rather stay on the streets.

Several of the residents living on Seventh Street are also experiencing substance-dependency issues. (NARCAN kits were spotted in some of the tents.)

On Seventh Street Friday afternoon, Junior was protecting his friend JD's tent and belongings. JD has a 9 to 5 job in New Jersey and wasn't there for the sweep. Junior carefully cleaned everything up, sat with it all, and set it back up when the enforcement team left. 
There's Jonny and Slay, a queer couple who are fiercely protective of one another.
Benny, a leader of sorts along here, issued directions for the others. He's been through this many times before and seemed resigned to the situation. He gave guidance for the others about what can, might and should happen. He was essentially correct. 

Sapphire, the only woman on the block, asked for help finding feminine hygiene products. 

Meanwhile, the sanitation and parks crews were much less discriminating inside the Park, tossing everything they saw along the benches on the southern section ...
This is also where residents witness more frequent open-air drug use (heroin and K2) and dealing.

Back on Seventh Street, the tents returned to their previous locations by nightfall, with the residents wondering when the next sweep might occur.

"Most asked me why they have to play a game like this. The Parks Department sergeant says they have to move their stuff or it will get tossed. The 9th Precinct says the residents can't obstruct access on the sidewalk and their belongings must remain attended to," said Stacie. "So they ended up striking their homes, temporarily moving across the street, and then coming back a few hours later and setting up in the same spots."

As housing advocates told the Times over the summer, these citywide sweeps just move people from one place to another and fail to address the housing crisis and provide stability, recovery and treatment to those who need it.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the intimate portrayal. It's a complicated issue and this had made me reflect on why I look the other way.

Anonymous said...

It is unfortunately true I participate in the NYC Dept. of Homeless Services Operation Hope where volunteers like me go out in teams at night and find and talk to the homeless in the middle of winter in January and offer them transport to local homeless shelters and they often refuse saying that they are beaten at the shelters and have all their personal belongings stolen from them. It is a tragic situation where the homeless would rather stay and sleep on the cold streets than risk being assaulted and robbed in a homeless shelter.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this thoughtful and balanced post about our neighbors.

Anonymous said...

Pretty sick when the city that purports to be the greatest on the planet can't take care of its homeless, giving them safe places to sleep and clean up.

Anonymous said...

I just walked past Tompkins between A and B today around 2pm as I live on Ave C and 7. There were still plenty of tents and stuff lingering around the sidewalk including a makeshift toilet. I had to walk on the street because there was no room. I am confused. Are some of them permitted to remain or did they just return after they were asked to vacate? And why on just this side of the park? Why not on E10th street? I am a concerned neighbor also, but I am also worried about our safety. Even during the day, it can become shady with drug use and selling and other suspicious activity. I wish the city had more allocated resources to help these individuals. This is NYC after all. It just feels like a dead end road for so many. Perhaps Mayor Elect Adams will draw attention to this pressing issue.

mvd said...

I live directly across the street from the park entrance midway between A and B, so right across from the tents. I walk my dogs into the park and along the park multiple times every day.
Yes, the sidewalk can get a bit crowded there. Yes, most of these folks are substance abusers and can be seen shooting up right on the sidewalk day and night. But I have never been threatened or bothered by any of them. They don't even ask for money. They have good reason to great and avoid the shelters, and they have to be somewhere.
But winter is coming. It is a hard life on the streets. I hope they find a way to be safe.

Anonymous said...

btw- Elon Musk made $36 billion(yes billion)last week.

Anonymous said...

Why are people so against urban camping. Be free man, let the tent structure be considered an interactive art. A vast maze of interactive art that doubles as private residences circa 2021

Sarah said...

For a look at the shelters, I recommend people read Andrea Elliott's recently-published _Invisible Child_, which follows a homeless girl and her family through a sequence of substandard (in some cases, downright squalid and dangerous) city homeless shelters/housing units. The parents are pretty hapless (to put it mildly), but you wouldn't keep your dog in such conditions.

Scuba Diva said...

My friend Josh has been on the streets for several years; he refuses to go to a shelter and is holding out to get a place of his own: UNDER the OVERPASS: A HOMELESS STORY - The homeless need your help! via @YouTube

Anonymous said...

Exactly. Why can't selfish, greedy morons like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos devote more time and resources to homeless communities, especially in cities such as NYC, Seattle, LA and SF where you see individuals living in tents on the streets, offering perhaps solutions with the amount of wealth they have. The problem with the northeast as one commenter pointed out is the advent of winter fast approaching. Temperatures are dropping. This could be very dangerous during the single digits. Their money could impact so many lives, perhaps even go towards rehab, mental health counseling, if some are willing. But the very few I casually know have no intentions of getting clean or accessing mental hygiene services or leaving the streets and enjoying the liberty it affords them. It is sad our shelter system has failed our communities where crime and assault is rampant. I can't think of any other resolution right now. The tent situation is becoming a huge problem. I've lived in this community for over a decade and have never witnessed anything as dire before. Very concerning.

Anonymous said...

The city spends over $3 billion every year on homeless services. It's not a money issue. The entire shelter system needs to be reorganized. The corruption going on is insane. Also you cant force people into rehab or mental health counseling. There is no legal way to do that in NYC. The other issue with the shelters is that they are now populated with newly released inmates. The jail population is now the shelter population.NYC has a prison to shelter pipeline. All the problems of prisons are now in the shelters. NYC unfortunately is on the road to being like LA and SF where sidewalks are blocked by tents. Reorganize and improve the shelters.

Anonymous said...

If spending money solved problems NYC would be the greatest city ever. The tent people wait for the cops to leave and then set the tents back up. There is no law enforcement. Shooting up is legal. These are nonviolent quality of life crimes. The newly elected DA isn't prosecuting these. There is no legal way to force them into rehab or shelter . NYC spends billions every year on homeless services- more than the budget for EMS/FDNY.

Anonymous said...

The jails and prisons were emptied and the former inmates are now in homeless shelters. Unintended consequence of ending mass incarceration. The problems of jails and prisons are now in the shelters.

XTC said...

The Governor was on TV this morning and said no one in NYC should be living on the street and everyone should have a "beautiful home" and she was going to make this happen. Has to be one of the most clueless, disingenuous, out of touch comments ever spoken by a politician.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it was completely packed with tents when we were going to the green market on Sunday. It was almost unclear where the tents ended and the clothing donation started. It’s tragic there’s not a better option for them but if they clear them out why not keep them from setting back up? The human excrement is really unhealthy and disgusting for anyone going by there. Can’t think it’s great for the green market vendors that are set up next to that.

Anonymous said...

Homeless drug addicts, mentally ill and ex cons living on the streets with no means of support is a major reason for the massive amount of crime that is being experienced in Manhattan. Unfortunately it's a problem with no solution since it's cheaper for the city and Albany to have people living on the streets rather than house them and give them the support they need.

Anonymous said...

I can’t believe people are saying things like this, and what’s under these comments. You don’t want them to set back up, you’re in support of these sweeps? People have a right to safe shelter, they’re not in this situation because they want to be.
Also, for anyone that thinks Eric Adams, a NYPD ex captain, is going to come up with any good ideas to help the homeless… The system that allows people to be thrown on the street, that protects the ownership of real estate over the lives of the homeless, and that adds salt to the wound by doing “clean-ups,” is the very system the police was made to upheld. Eric Adams believes in strengthening that system, he believes the potential for reform exists within it. But it’s inherently flawed, the ship of Theseus is still a ship, and serves every purpose it was originally meant to serve, no matter how much money and shiny new pieces are invested in it.