Democratic New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio claimed that homeless camps are “very, very rare” in New York City during a press conference Monday, according to the New York Post.
“I just want to say, once in a while we still see something that’s an encampment,” the mayor said when asked about a group of people that had been living under a tent in Elmhurst, Queens since April, the New York Post reported. “That means people trying to set up basically permanent lodging on the street, but it’s very, very rare in New York City right now because we made a decision years ago in this administration to stop what had happened for decades before and not allow those encampments.”
“So sometimes you see what we call a hot spot which is people congregating, but not setting up, you know, a living place, in effect,” he added. De Blasio then promised that the homeless camp in Elmhurst would be “addressed right away,” according to the New York Post. (RELATED: ‘To Hell With All Of Them’: De Blasio Says He’s ‘Sick Of People Attacking The City Of New York’ And Its Police Forces)
Several homeless camps have been documented throughout the city in recent weeks.
A woman sits on the sidewalk in the Harlem area of New York City on May 5, 2020, as the fear of exposure to COVID-19 in the city run shelters spreads. (Photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)
The camps have shown up across all of the city’s 5 boroughs, NBC4 reported. Residents near a homeless camp in Chelsea said that they had to take extra security precautions as crime and harassment shot up. Camps were also seen in Bushwick and East Village, which was recently cleaned out by a sanitation crew, according to the NBC4 report.
One resident referred to a series of homeless camps in lower Manhattan as “a scene out of a zombie movie,” the New York Post reported July 27. The people living in the homeless camp were seen barbequing and creating makeshift homes out of mattresses and other objects.
De Blasio’s administration began housing homeless people in hotels in March to curb the spread of coronavirus. The mayor said recently that the city would begin moving the homeless out of the hotels.