City agencies have begun clearing tents from a Coney Island Avenue overpass as part of a coordinated effort to prevent homeless encampments from returning to the site. Workers are installing a fence along the overpass after officials say the area had become a source of safety and sanitation concerns.<\/p>\n
Inna Vernikov said multiple city agencies collaborated on the effort, citing ongoing complaints from residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been working with agencies like DSNY, NYPD, DHS, and obviously the DOT to prevent and create a barrier from the encampments,\u201d Vernikov said. \u201cThere is a lot of sanitation issues, drug issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
As crews placed fence posts into the ground and began securing the barrier, reactions from nearby residents were mixed.<\/p>\n
Some welcomed the change, saying the encampment had made the area feel unsafe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the fence is a good thing,\u201d said resident Mohammad Salim. \u201cSo those people don\u2019t come again. It\u2019s not safe; people cannot go over there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others, however, questioned whether the fence would actually solve the underlying problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel bad,\u201d said resident Ertan Aksoy. \u201cI don\u2019t agree with them to put the fence over that. It [will] not solve the problem. Wintertime – people struggle outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
For at least one person who had been staying under the overpass the night before, the fence means finding another place to sleep.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tough situation living under these conditions and this weather,\u201d the individual said. \u201cI would have just taken a shelter or something, or a family friend; anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New York City Department of Homeless Services says outreach teams will continue working around the clock to help people living on the streets connect with shelter and support services. Vernikov added that residents who see someone living on the street who may need help should contact her office directly so city agencies can respond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City agencies have begun clearing tents from a Coney Island Avenue overpass as part of a coordinated effort…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,119,5459,29323,9,24,4303,1310,63,3738,608],"class_list":["post-162945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-coney-island","tag-department-of-transportation","tag-illegal-dumping","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-department-of-sanitation","tag-new-york-city-department-of-transportation","tag-nyc","tag-taking-action","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}