Mamdani offers few answers as massive homeless encampment sprouts in west Manhattan
Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday offered few specifics about a sprawling homeless encampment that has grown near the Intrepid Museum despite repeated complaints from New York City residents.
The encampment stretches roughly 12 blocks along Manhattan’s West Side, from 34th Street to 46th Street on 11th Avenue, according to the New York Post. The area is reportedly lined with tents, furniture, used needles and suspected stolen goods, while residents have also complained of open drug use and prostitution.
Asked about the encampment, which sits near a major tourist destination as the city welcomes visitors for the FIFA World Cup, Mamdani said the city was “going to look into the details of that.”
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He said that under city rules, homeless encampments can be cleared only after the city’s Department of Homeless Services (DHS) conducts daily outreach for seven days following an initial notice.
“The goal of that outreach is to ensure that we’re building trust that we’re actually able to connect those New Yorkers with services and that we can connect them with any other things that they need, whether it be medical care or whether it be housing support. And then by the 7th day, following the notice, the encampment will be cleared,” Mamdani said.
“We are focused on connecting New Yorkers to shelters and on establishing a pipeline to stable housing, not just moving New Yorkers from one place to another place,” he added.
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According to The Post, the encampment has been growing for weeks, with nearby workers saying the population has steadily increased.
“These people have been here forever,” one employee at the Intrepid Museum told the outlet.
A maintenance supervisor at the nearby Jacob K. Javits Convention Center told the outlet that despite repeated efforts to clear sections of the encampment, the camp continues to spread.
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“This is crazy,” the worker said. “The cops and the sanitation guys and the outreach guys, they clean up one spot and after that day, the next day they’re over here. Then they’re over there. They’re kind of just spreading around.”
“We kicked them out, now they’re over here,” the worker added. “One thing is for sure though, there are more today than there were last month, that’s for sure.”
City records show there were 48 complaints related to homelessness along the affected stretch of the West Side through the city’s 311 system this year, including 30 filed last month alone, the Post reported.
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