It’s a scene that has become commonplace in New York: the police dismantled a homeless encampment on a Manhattan sidewalk on Wednesday, but no homeless people agreed to be rehoused in one of the city’s homes, judged too dangerous.
Under the boos of anti-eviction activists and in the midst of an imposing police force, employees of the cleaning services threw the blue tents, a pile of clothes and blankets and rubbish which littered the ground into a dumpster.
The police arrested several activists and a homeless man who refused to evacuate the premises, after hours of negotiations during which the occupants had been offered to break camp while keeping their tents.
These operations have multiplied since the new Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, promised in March to rid the metro of the thousands of homeless people who find refuge there and to put an end to camps in public spaces, promising decent rehousing. .
A policy that he justifies by saying he wants to put the city back in working order after the Covid-19 pandemic, but which is decried by his left wing.
“Wasting resources on an operation like that, clearly exaggerated, at a time when you are reducing budgets for social housing, it is unacceptable”, launches on the spot a Democratic municipal councilor, Carlina Rivera.
– Mixed results –
Beneath the scaffolding that precariously protects the camp from the rain, Kevin, a 66-year-old African American who did not wish to give his last name, flatly refused a place in one of the city’s hostels. , because he was the victim of theft there, he says.
“I wouldn’t advise anyone to go to a hostel. It’s dangerous,” he said.
“We want apartments, we want houses, not places in hostels,” says one of his comrades, Cynthia.
Poverty is visible in this lower Manhattan neighborhood called Alphabet City, especially in a nearby public park, where people without resources come and go.
The homeless had chosen a site located directly opposite a Lutheran parish that distributes free meals.
His pastor, Reverend William Kroeze, observes that “since Covid, especially the first few months, there have been many more people living on the streets, and the queue (for meals) has grown day after day. day. It is always very long”.
Mayor Eric Adams himself conceded that the first results of the operations were mixed, only five homeless people among nearly 250 camps visited having claimed to go to a home, according to his figures.
He pleaded for a long-term policy, assuring that “more than 300” homeless people had asked for help in the metro, where operations began earlier.