A homeless encampment in Manhattan’s East Village is growing despite New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s promise to break up such groups.
“The vagrants are living under a stretch of scaffolding along Second Avenue between East Seventh and East Eighth streets, where they’ve arranged cast-off furniture and set up a tarp under which two men were sleeping Friday afternoon,” according to the New York Post.
A 78-year-old resident named Olga said the encampment made her feel uncomfortable and made the city dirty and noisy.
“There was one woman who was making pee-pee and caca by the bus stop. It was very dirty and disgusting. Nobody wanted to use the bus stop,” she told the Post.
However, when CBS 2 political reporter Marcia Kramer recently asked de Blasio what actions he would take to deal with the city’s homeless encampments and other issues, the mayor said, “No question we’ll deal with these issues, as we have before.”
Despite the mayor’s assurances, shootings grew by 220 percent compared to the same week last year in New York City, while other violent crimes have also increased, Breitbart News reported Wednesday.
“The latest shooting data out of the city comes after the NYPD disbanded its anti-crime unit of undercover officers — those tasked with keeping violent criminals and illegal guns off the streets. Mayor Bill de Blasio also cut the NYPD budget by $1 billion,” the report said.
The mayor was questioned at a press conference Thursday about other homeless encampments across Manhattan and said when officials learned of them, they would address the issue “right away,” adding they would do “whatever it takes.”
However, a restaurant owner whose business was across the street from the East Village encampment told the Post the situation appeared to be getting worse.
“They started camping out there when the weather got warmer and recently it got bigger. Some of them have mental issues. They drink a lot and fight with each other. They throw bottles,” the owner explained.