Photos by Stacie Joy
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...
