Remembering Jose Fernandez

Photos by Stacie Joy

Friends came out today to pay their respects to longtime LES resident Jose "Joe" Hernandez, who died late last week. He had been hospitalized with liver disease. Hernandez was 71.

In recent months, Hernandez was among the handful of unhoused residents living in tents along Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C, a stretch of sidewalk that has been a frequent target of the Mayor's encampment sweeps. (This was at least the eighth time in recent months where the city conducted a sweep here.)

Hernandez, pictured above, told this to EVG contributor Stacie Joy in April:

I've been here for four months now. I am looking for a one-bedroom apartment for my wife and me. I'm retired now. I was a superintendent and building manager for buildings on the Lower East Side. When I was younger, I worked for the Board of Education on Eldridge Street and Forsyth. A friend of mine was sleeping here on Ninth Street, and he was leaving his tent, so I took it. I get a pension and Social Security. Being homeless is not easy, including with the police department. They are very rude. They want us out of here. My wife is Amalia Jordan; we're common law. She’s staying at Masaryk Towers. 

During the vigil today, the NYPD and other city agencies returned to this sidewalk space and tossed the belongings of the individuals here.

Here's more from 1010 WINS, in a bad-look story for the city administration, "Cops sweep East Village homeless encampment during vigil for dead resident."

Mourners, including residents, neighbors, activists and a reverend from the church across the street, were outraged that police had chosen to carry out the sweep during the vigil.

And... 

After police and sanitation workers had finished destroying the camp, the vigil continued as planned, though maybe tinged with more anger and bitterness than it otherwise would have been.

As 1010 WINS noted, "After getting robbed twice in city shelters, Hernandez decided he preferred to live on the streets — where he spent his final years as his health failed."

He lost all his clothes and stockpile of food during a sweep in March.

"The sanitation truck stands there, and they start throwing everything in the truck," he said. "I was living there… They throw all the stuff out, clothing. They were begging but they didn't care."

Hernandez's "loved ones remember him as a kind, gentle and loving person, who, despite having very little, took immense joy in giving."  

Questions, and concerns, remain over private security detail outside the former P.S. 64

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

A security detail remains outside the former P.S. 64 (and later Charas/El Bohio Community Center) on Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C.

As we first reported over the Memorial Day weekend, employees of the Massachusetts-based Madison Security Group started to watch the property... and near where several unhoused residents have been living under the sidewalk bridge in recent months (and the site of several controversial sweeps via city agencies).

There was speculation that the security was there to watch the tents under the sidewalk bridge, perhaps hired by nearby residents concerned by their presence. One local resident told us: "A Madison Security car was stationed alongside the encampment all last night with its lights flashing at them."

However, EVG contributor Stacie Joy spoke with one of the security guards, who said he was explicitly there on eight-hour shifts to monitor the building and serve as an impediment for people attempting to sneak inside the long-abandoned school-community center. (There have been reports of kids partying and other activities inside the property.)

The security guard said that he did not care about the tents or the Christodora House — the former P.S. 64 was his only interest. He also stated that he didn't know who had hired them.

Ownership of the property is in transition. In January, Supreme Court Justice Melissa Crane ruled that Madison Realty Capital could move forward with a foreclosure against building landlord Gregg Singer after years of delay. 

Madison Realty Capital reportedly provided Singer with a $44 million loan on the property in 2016. Court records show that he failed to repay the balance by its maturity date in April 2016, and by that September, the lender filed to foreclose, as reported by The Real Deal.

Singer, who bought the property from the city during an auction in 1998 for $3.15 million, has wanted to turn the building into a dorm, though those plans never materialized. There has been a call to return the building for community use in years past. 

As for the security, we witnessed the Madison car leave Ninth Street and drive around to the 10th Street side of the building, though the detail didn't remain there. An unmarked NYPD vehicle also stopped by on Ninth Street, yelling at the security guard seated in the car about being too close to a fire hydrant.

The security has also impacted the Trinity Lower East Side Lutheran Parish across Ninth Street. Since 1986, Trinity's Services And Food for the Homeless (SAFH) has provided lunch for 200-300 people each weekday. However, church officials say the security detail on the block has kept some people in need from coming through.

"While I'm happy to see that security has returned to keep the building safe, the constant presence of vehicles with flashing lights and guards in bulletproof vests has definitely been a deterrent to some of our soup kitchen's guests coming to receive food and assistance," Trinity's Rev. William Kroeze (aka Pastor Will) told us. "Many of our guests are undocumented and have complicated relationships with law enforcement, and they can't readily discern the difference between law enforcement and private security. It's important that Trinity always be a place of sanctuary and refuge for those most on the margins of society, and I'm concerned that for some of our guests, we are not such a place at the current time."

Meanwhile, two tents remain under the sidewalk bridge. There were six-seven tents at the peak this spring, with residents numbering up to 10.

Reader report: Private security firm now keeping tabs on unhoused encampment on 9th Street

Photo by Jose Garcia 

Several readers have noted that the unhoused encampment is back under the sidewalk bridge along the former P.S. 64 on Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C. (The city has unsuccessfully attempted to place the residents in shelters multiple times this spring, resulting in several arrests.) 

The arrival of the tents also prompted someone to hire private security. It's not known who may have enlisted the services of Madison Security Group.

Per one local resident: "A Madison Security car was stationed alongside the encampment all last night with its lights flashing at them."

Previously on EV Grieve:

• Report: 2 arrested in latest East Village encampment sweep

• Standoff on 9th Street

• In Tompkins Square Park, speaking out against the city's sweeps of unhoused encampments  

• Councilmember Carlina Rivera calls for an immediate end to the city's encampment sweeps 

Councilmember Carlina Rivera calls for an immediate end to the city's encampment sweeps

Photo from 9th Street on April 6 by Stacie Joy 

Local City Councilmember Carlina Rivera is demanding an immediate end to "the dehumanizing homeless encampment sweeps" in the East Village and throughout New York City. 

The demands came in a letter that Rivera sent to Mayor Adams this past Thursday...

 

It reads in part: 

For over a month, my office, other local elected officials, and community leaders have conveyed to your office through meetings, phone calls, and emails that these sweeps represent an egregious misappropriation of resources with very few housing placements as outcomes and further deepen the mistrust between government and the public. The acts themselves also appear to be among the most tragic misfires in community engagement to have transpired in recent years. Despite our best efforts in seeking your attention to this urgent matter, yesterday afternoon the NYPD Strategic Response Group, an entity designated for counterterrorism efforts, aggressively executed multiple arrests, a continuation of the harmful behavior we have witnessed since the first confrontation at the intersection of East 9th Street and Avenue B in Manhattan on April 6, 2022. 

I both respect and commend your administration's commitment to ending homelessness in New York City. With that goal in mind, I urge you to put an end to the ineffective sweeps and instead commit to supporting and investing in the policies and programs our communities deserve. We must build more housing across the five boroughs and we should start now; we must legalize nontraditional uses for housing, like basements and vacant commercial properties; and we must fully staff the agency teams tasked with securing affordable housing for the New Yorkers who qualify. 

A Community Board 3 committee drafted a resolution in support of the asks of the letter, which will go to the full Board for a vote on May 24. 

The NYPD and other city agencies have continued with their sweeps, with at least seven on the group of several unhoused residents staying in tents on Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C under the sidewalk bridge at the former P.S. 64. There was yet another one — unannounced — yesterday on Ninth Street that led to more arrests.

According to city stats cited by The New York Times, there have been more than 700 cleanups from March 18 to May 1 — many of them of the same site multiple times — and 39 people have accepted the placement into shelters.

"Our teams are working professionally and diligently every day to make sure that every New Yorker living on the street knows they have a better option while ensuring that everyone who lives in or visits our city can enjoy the clean public spaces we all deserve," Mayor Adams said in a statement last week.

And as the Times noted: "Several videos of officers roughly handling homeless people and their belongings have circulated widely on social media, complicating Mr. Adams's attempts to portray the dismantling of encampments as something being done for the good of the homeless people themselves."

Unhoused residents have said that the shelter system is not safe. Read our interviews with some of the Ninth Street residents here.

Previously on EV Grieve:

• Report: 2 arrested in latest East Village encampment sweep

• Standoff on 9th Street

• In Tompkins Square Park, speaking out against the city's sweeps of unhoused encampments  

Report: 8 arrested in latest sweep of unhoused encampment on 9th Street

Photo from Sunday by Stacie Joy 

City agencies returned this morning to Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C, where a group of unhoused residents has been living in tents under the sidewalk bridge at the former P.S. 64. 

The result: 8 arrests.

Here's more from The New York Times: 

The protest began as dozens of police officers, accompanied by a sanitation crew and a single homeless outreach worker, forced out the people living in the encampment for at least the seventh time in the last six weeks. 

[Tompkins Square Park] has become ground zero to the small but vocal movement protesting Mr. Adams's policies for addressing homelessness. "Housing is a human right, fight, fight, fight," the protesters chanted as police vans pulled up on neighboring streets around 9 a.m., and campers and supporters from a host of mutual aid and tenant activist groups taped off the tents with red packing tape. 

After a standoff, police arrested seven activists and one of the unhoused residents. 

All went willingly except Johnny Grima, 37, a homeless man who has emerged as the public face of the protests. He has been arrested three other times in the last month. 

As officers wrestled him out of his tent, then carried him toward a waiting police van, a protester shouted: "Shame on you. Is that how you treat houseless people?" 

According to city stats cited by the Times, there have been more than 700 cleanups from March 18 to May 1 — many of them of the same site multiple times — and 39 people have accepted the placement into shelters.

Unhoused residents have said that the shelter system is not safe. Read our interviews with some of the Ninth Street residents here.

Previously on EV Grieve:

• Report: 2 arrested in latest East Village encampment sweep

• Standoff on 9th Street

• In Tompkins Square Park, speaking out against the city's sweeps of unhoused encampments  

Report: 2 arrested in latest East Village encampment sweep

Photo by @Jeremoss 

For the third time in a week, various city agencies joined forces on a sweep of an unhoused encampment in the East Village. 

According to published reports, two people were arrested — an activist and a resident — during the crackdown on Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C  this morning around 8. 

A handful of people have been living under the sidewalk bridge of the vacant former P.S. 64. Witnesses said that more than 30 members of the NYPD were involved, including from the Strategic Response Group, for two people in the encampments.

i just watched 33 cops arrest 2 unhoused people in order to sweep an encampment of 5, the entire nyc housing policy is eviction at gunpoint pic.twitter.com/D7xhSlYcwh

— tracy jeanne rosenthal (@two__evils) April 20, 2022

This was the same location as an action on April 6 that resulted in a 7-hour standoff between a group of activists and unhoused residents and reps from several city agencies. 

The residents here in a zone dubbed "Anarchy Row" relocated to Avenue B and then 10th Street along Tompkins Square Park. Twice in the past week, the city attempted to move the residents into shelters — including during the citywide manhunt for alleged subway shooter Frank James, who turned out to be wandering around a few blocks away.

Per Gothamist: 

The East Village sweep was part of Mayor Eric Adams' ongoing efforts to clear the city of homeless encampments, which he has repeatedly argued is necessary for the dignity of homeless people. The sweeps, while not a new phenomenon under Adams, have drawn a drumbeat of criticism from homeless advocates, the City Council's Progressive caucus, the New York Times editorial board, and a coalition of faith leaders. 

On April 9, more than a dozen community groups and mutual-aid networks rallied in Tompkins Square Park to speak out against the Mayor's aggressive sweeps of unhoused encampments across the city.

Unhoused residents have said that the shelter system is not safe. Read our interviews with some of the Ninth Street residents here.

Updated:

Johnny Grima, the unhoused resident who was arrested this morning, was released from the 7th Precinct early this evening, as EVG contributor Stacie Joy reports. He sustained some injuries during the arrest (top photo).

In Tompkins Square Park, speaking out against the city's sweeps of unhoused encampments

Photos by Stacie Joy

More than a dozen community groups and mutual-aid networks joined forces for a rally in Tompkins Square Park yesterday to speak out against Mayor Adams' aggressive sweeps of unhoused encampments across the city, including one Wednesday on Ninth Street in the East Village. 

Speakers at the rally called for an end to the encampment sweeps ... while providing safe housing for New Yorkers living on the streets.

The rally, which drew 100-plus supporters, took place at the chess tables in the Park's SW corner. Before the event, several people removed the barricades from this space that the NYPD placed here late last summer after clearing out an encampment.
 

The speakers included Sinthia, one of the unhoused residents who was living on Ninth Street...

 

The rally came two days after the 7-hour standoff on Ninth Street outside the former P.S. 64 between a group of activists and unhoused residents and reps from several city agencies. 

The NYPD eventually arrested seven people while a sanitation crew tossed some of the residents' belongings. 

Since then, people have questioned the use of dozens of officers from the NYPD, including members of the Strategic Response Group and the Technical Assistance Response Unit, over four tents. 

As CBS 2 reported: 

"It was awful, it was stupid, and it was violent," said Helen Strom, director of homeless advocacy for Safety Net Project. 

Strom also said it was dehumanizing to watch homeless people and advocate in a seven-hour standoff with police and a Sanitation crew looking to clear up their encampment on an East Ninth Street sidewalk.  

"What the mayor should be doing is he should be sending out housing specialists to get people into apartments, instead of spending hundreds of thousands of tax payer money on police," she said. Strom said it was a total waste of resources, since the unhoused individuals refused to go to a shelter, fearing for their safety. 

As Politico noted: 

The new mayor will face an uphill battle in actually compelling people to leave the streets and go into the city’s shelter system, which is considered unsafe by many who have taken refuge under bridges, on sidewalks and in the subways. Elected officials and advocates for homeless people warn the city lacks capacity to offer people other options, and say the push is an unwelcome return to failed policies of the past. 

During an interview yesterday on WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show," Adams defended the sweeps," saying "he was working to preserve the 'dignity' of homeless New Yorkers," as Gothamist reported. 

"When I looked at some of those encampment sites...I saw people living in human waste," the mayor said. "Drug paraphernalia, no showers, no clean clothing. Living like that — that is not dignified." 

During a press conference with clergy members on Thursday, Adams said that the Four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, would have done the same thing. 

Yesterday's rally included a march to the former P.S. 64 ... and eventually to Washington Square Park...

... and then back to Ninth Street between B and C...

Meanwhile, a few of the residents who were the subject of Wednesday's sweep moved nearby along Avenue B...

The NYPD photographed the tents this morning... with another sweep likely in the days ahead...

Standoff on 9th Street

Photos by Stacie Joy

Today was a long, tense day on Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C. The NYPD arrested seven people following a seven-hour standoff between a group of activists and unhoused residents and reps from several city agencies.

By late afternoon, the NYPD — who called in reinforcements from the Strategic Response Group and the Technical Assistance Response Unit — arrested six activists and one unhoused resident along a corridor dubbed "Anarchy Row."

As previously reported, about a half-dozen unhoused residents have been living in tents under the sidewalk bridge alongside the long-empty former P.S. 64 on Ninth Street. Previous attempts to move the residents into shelters had been unsuccessful.

After the arrests this afternoon, sanitation workers came in and swept the block ... tossing the tents and any belongings the residents didn't take with them. (It was not immediately known what happened to the other residents who were staying here.)

Law enforcement reps on the scene said that the architecture of the tents were illegal. So people could sleep on the street; they just couldn't have tents.

As Gothamist reported, today's sweep was "the latest flashpoint over Mayor Eric Adams' controversial push to clear the city of homeless encampments."

The actions, involving dozens of city employees over seven hours, drew criticism ...

Trying to police away homelessness didn't work during the Giuliani era and it won't work now. Mayor Adams is doubling down on failed approaches that hurt and dehumanize unhoused New Yorkers.

Our statement: pic.twitter.com/iNpPE8RoUP

— NYCLU (@NYCLU) April 6, 2022

And the city's response...

Spokesperson for @NYCMayor on removal of East Village encampment: “We have been engaged at this site for weeks, and our teams then and today were respectful and made repeated offers of shelter and wraparound services …” pic.twitter.com/SVBXDD45Ib

— Emily Ngo (@emilyngo) April 7, 2022

Here's a video showing part of what transpired today...

 

Anarchy Row

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

Updated 5 p.m. There have been multiple arrests during an hours-long standoff here today between activists and the NYPD and reps from other city services. Gothamist has a story here. We'll update later.

Several unhoused residents live under the sidewalk bridge alongside the long-empty former P.S. 64 on Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C. 

This corridor has a variety of nicknames, including Anarchy Row.

Last Thursday, a sweep team with members of the NYPD, Department of Sanitation and social services reportedly arrived here without notice and “destroyed tents and bedding,” as 1010 WINS documented. 

The sweep was part of a renewed effort by Mayor Adams “to crack down on street homelessness,” as Gothamist put it. As The New York Times observed in an article from Sunday: “Thirty years after the Tompkins Square riots, the problems around homelessness remain the same.” 

On Monday, reps from the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) returned to Anarchy Row...

... and posted notices of another sweep today. [Updated 11 a.m.: Gothamist is live-tweeting from the scene.]

Ahead of this, EVG contributor Stacie Joy spoke with these residents. 

Here are their stories. 

 -----

 Derrick Parker, 67 years old

“Social Security is the issue. My Social Security debit card doesn’t work anymore. I have called several times to resolve the problem and fix my PIN number, but it’s never fixed. Pastor Will [of Trinity Lower East Side Lutheran Parish] has been assisting me. I see the government knocking people off SS. They pick certain cases, and they can’t get their funds, and they become homeless. My wife, Dale, died on August 11 of 2020. She had cirrhosis of the liver from drinking and had a heart attack. I’m a licensed private investigator and bounty hunter. I had a stroke and have diabetes. Everything hit at once. Now I have trouble walking. I hope the Social Security director will look at my case and help me fix it.” 

 -----

 Jose Hernandez, 71 years old

“I’ve been here for four months now. I am looking for a one-bedroom apartment for my wife and me. I’m retired now. I was a superintendent and building manager for buildings on the Lower East Side. When I was younger, I worked for the Board of Education on Eldridge Street and Forsyth. A friend of mine was sleeping here on Ninth Street, and he was leaving his tent, so I took it. I get a pension and Social Security. Being homeless is not easy, including with the police department. They are very rude. They want us out of here. My wife is Amalia Jordan; we’re common law. She’s staying at Masaryk Towers.” 

-----

Sinthia

“I was in the 1989 Tompkins Square Park homeless evictions at that tent city. I have only been here, on Ninth Street, for a week. I was on the trains before that. I’ve been homeless for two years. Ten days before they stopped the evictions due to the pandemic, I was evicted. We were in hotels for a while with my teenage son, my husband and me. It all fell apart. Sadly, this isn’t the first time I’ve been homeless. I am selling my paintings. I’m an artist. I tried to rent a place with my stimulus check, but no one would rent to me. They wanted better credit than we have. They didn’t say why, just that we didn’t get the space. The bathroom had a separate key out in the hallway. Mayor Adams says he thinks we live in a pile of needles.” 

-----

George the Third, aka Gee, 38 years old

“I’ve been here one week. I slept wherever it was warmest. I was looking for the warmest spot I could find. Cops would smack a stick down next to your head. Or hit you. I’ve been pepper-sprayed by cops; they threw water on me. I would stay on the trains, in Tompkins, wherever. In Tompkins, I always needed blankets; sometimes they had bugs. What I really need is an ID. I need a photo ID. I lost all my identity. I can’t get a Social Security card without, like, five points of identification. Identity theft is a major thing with the mafia, that and extortion. I need a birth certificate and paperwork. I need a P.O. box so I can get mail. Mail is important. I’ve been a Planet Fitness member for years, never late on my payment. Maybe they would let me get some mail there. I can work out, shower and use the massage chairs.” 

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