A new Skid Row encampment popped up across the street from NYU dorms \u2014 with vagrants bragging that living on the streets of the Big Apple is \u201cmuch better\u201d under Mayor Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n
The 30-foot-long shantytown at East Ninth Street and Third Avenue sits just outside Ukrainian Village Park, with a long blue tarp covering office chairs, luggage and bicycles on the sidewalk, in plain sight of both passersby and the college students who live across the street, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people are nice, some people think we invade their space,\u201d Raymond, 45, who lives in the shelter, said Monday. \u201cI was in a Bowery shelter and they stole my stuff. I\u2019d rather be outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
A homeless man inside his encampment across the street from NYU dorms in Manhattan. Kevin C. Downs for NY Post<\/p>\n
He said roughing it on the sidewalk is \u201cmuch better\u201d since Mamdani took office.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe past mayor had the police and they just came through and took stuff,\u201d Raymond said. \u201cNow they ask if we are ok and need help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unsightly homeless encampments have dotted the city over the past year, including a blocks-long shantytown near the Intrepid Museum<\/a> on Manhattan\u2019s West Side that went unchecked until The Post blew the whistle \u2014 with the city finally moving in to try to clear it out.<\/p>\n A filthy encampment also turned a stretch of the East Side under the FDR<\/a> Drive into a trash heap, while an outdoor flophouse has overtaken the sidewalk<\/a> in trendy Greenwich Village.<\/p>\n Three people were inside a homeless encampment on East 9 Street when police received a 311 call. Kevin C. Downs for NY Post<\/p>\n Raymond, 45, said living on the sidewalk in the city is safer and better than bedding down in a legit shelter. Kevin C. Downs for NY Post<\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s policy for dealing with the encampments handcuffs cops, and instead sends city outreach workers to try to sweet talk and offer services to the vagrants \u2014 who often just move down the street.<\/p>\n After seven days, police and sanitation workers are sent in to remove the rubbish. <\/p>\n Raymond and his pal Dave, who were lounging near the NYU encampment on Sunday, said the hands-off policy makes living on the streets preferable over legit shelters, where theft and abuse is common.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are plenty of services out there if you want it,\u201d said Dave, 31. \u201cThis is a choice. If you wanted to be inside, you could. I have friends who froze to death over the last two winters just because they wanted to be outside.\u201d<\/p>\n Homeless encampments have popped up throughout the Big Apple, thanks to City Hall\u2019s hands-off approach. Kevin C. Downs for NY Post<\/p>\n He said he worked as a waiter on Long Island but ended up homeless after getting hooked on drugs.<\/p>\n \u201cAt night, you have the drunk NYU kids talking s\u2013t,\u201d he added. \u201cYou see both sides of it.\u201d<\/p>\n NYPD cops responding to a 311 complaint showed up at the scene on Sunday, and told the sidewalk squatters to \u201ccondense and get rid of some stuff,\u201d then left.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t look a lot different from Los Angeles,\u201d one passerby said, referring to Skid Row.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new Skid Row encampment popped up across the street from NYU dorms \u2014 with vagrants bragging that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[32941,9468,2000,75,84,83,57,9,24,63,22460,58,82],"class_list":["post-352716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-homeless-encampments","tag-homeless-shelters","tag-homelessness","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nyu","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352716","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=352716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}