BY THE VILLAGE SUN | It doesn’t look like there is a lot of intensity on the city’s part over a group of tents lining E. Seventh Street outside Tompkins Square Park.
The structures are now firmly anchored down with ropes tied to cobblestones.
The Department of Homeless Services recently posted another sign next to the encampment, with a new date, Nov. 1, for the start of a “cleanup” of the area. A previous sign said the cleanup would start Oct. 29.
The postings advise the tent dwellers that they can avail themselves of D.H.S. outreach teams’ help in finding indoor shelter or alternately go to the men’s and families shelter at E. 30th Street or women’s shelters in the Bronx and Brooklyn.
Inside the park, the chess tables have been fenced off, but there are a couple of spots where homeless men have staked out spaces. One guy is living under a tarp on a bench near the park entrance at Seventh Street and Avenue A.
He is now also selling secondhand books atop the tarp. “Crazy Rich Asians,” Judy Blume and Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” were among the offerings on Sunday.
A friend of his sporting a lightning bolt tattoo near his left eye said the books go for $1 to $5. He called out to the man, who was napping, who mumbled something in a faint voice from under the tarp.
WHAT is the point of the Village Sun posting an item that makes the homeless in the park look bad?
This is like the 1980s all over again. Homeless do not live outside by choice, but by NECESSITY. Have YOU ever stayed at a homeless shelter? I’ve heard the horror stories from the homeless who live outside – they all say it is much SAFER for them in the park!
From what I’ve seen, the tents and tarps are set up in areas that do not interfere with parkgoers, so, aside from a very visual reminder that the city has FAILED (again), what is wrong with them being there?
Obviously, living in the park is not the answer to homelessness, but, until TRULY AFFORDABLE housing is made available to them, the homeless have a RIGHT to live there in safety where they can look out for each other and where members of the community can support them.
It is “reports” such as those appearing in The Village Sun that push kops to attack the homeless. Just yesterday, a group of people providing food and necessities for the homeless in Tompkins Square Park were arrested. NO warnings, NO opportunity to leave.
Great job “reporting” on those horrible homeless people who think they have a right to live here…..
Apparently the Daily News is also doing a story on it.
YOUR posts preceded the police assault and theft of homeless property in the park.
You could have attempted to speak with the homeless and report WHY they are in the park, but the way you did it was soooo much easier, right??
They are in the park because they are crazy and addicted and refuse to get help. Letting them camp on the sidewalks is not the answer, the sidewalks belong to everyone, they are not a campsite. If you love squalor so much you should invite them to live with you. You can step over the poop and the needles, don’t inflict it on the rest of us though.
Those books belong on shelves, which that homeless person probably had not long ago but was disenfranchised from his apartment because he couldn’t afford to pay rent anymore, thanks to real estate rental market speculation/fabrication. Some recovery for all of us, de Blasio.
I agree, it’s really sad. We need to build more housing, legalize and build SROs and ADUs, and provide more funding for supportive housing.