NYC officials vacating homeless encampments across city, giving residents 24-hour notices
NEW YORK -- City officials confirmed Saturday that an initiative is underway to vacate and clean up homeless encampments.
Describing cardboard boxes and makeshift tents as inhumane living conditions, Mayor Eric Adams says the city is cracking down on homeless encampments.
"I'm not going to have an inhumane city that allows people to live in an inhumane, dangerous environment, no restrooms no showers, no ways to take care of themselves," he said.
At an event Saturday, the mayor announced a two-week blitz of the camps is well underway.
A task force made up of city officials, including NYPD members, is currently visiting more than 150 locations. Officials with body cameras are offering shelter and services to residents before giving them a 24-48 hour notice to vacate.
"We're going to dismantle those encampments, give people wrap around services, voucher their goods so no one's supplies are removed from them," Adams said.
As CBS2's Kiran Dhillon reports, the initiative is being met with mixed reactions from New Yorkers and comes just weeks after the mayor launched an aggressive plan to remove people experiencing homelessness from the subway system.
"I guess it's the only way they get out of the streets because that's their home, the tent, so it forces them to go somewhere else, better," one person said.
"It's their lives, it's their call, I think. Certainly if they're offering them services that they don't want or would rather stay in their encampments, they probably have a good reason for that," another person said.
Homeless advocates are also weighing in. The Coalition for the Homeless has criticized the plan, calling it "tired and cruel."
In a statement, the group said in part, "If the Mayor is serious about helping homeless people, he needs to open thousands of New Safe Haven and stabilization rooms and offer them to those in need, not take away what little protection they have from the elements and other dangers on the street."
The mayor responded saying, "We want them in shelters. The shelters are extremely safe for people who are homeless. There is no way, there's no way you guys are telling me y'all think it's OK for people to live in a shanty box. I just can't believe that."
As for the initiative, the city says the task force does plan to return to the locations of the dismantled encampments to ensure they have not been rebuilt.
The two-week blitz of the camps should be wrapped up by the end of March. The mayor's office says the task force has visited half of the encampments since March 17.