NYPD clears out homeless camp to local workers applause: vagrants ‘do a lot of bad things here’

A sprawling encampment of the homeless sprang up – and was allowed to continue to grow – along Manhattan’s bustling neighborhood for at least a few weeks before the eyesore was finally cleared up on Wednesday.

At least 10 displaced people, some of whom suffer from mental illness and substance abuse, set up nearly a dozen makeshift tents on the sidewalk of First Avenue between East 20th and East 21st Streets.

The tent city, which locals say has grown to over half a city block during the cold months, is adjacent to the family enclaves of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, as well as the ever-popular Rosemary’s East restaurant.

The dining room of an Italian eatery overlooks a square inhabited by vagrants and rabble.

“We are not allowed to stay in the subway, we are not allowed to stay in ventilation shafts. Where do they want us to go?! Shelters are no good,” said Loreal Madonna Moore, a 31-year-old homeless woman who was kicked off the block.

Asked how the camp is affecting business, Rosemary’s manager declined to comment, saying only, “We’re fine.”

However, police and city sanitation workers arrived at the camp at around 9:30 a.m. and cleared away trash as homeless social workers urged vagrants to check into the shelter.

“Some of them are really crazy. Like a dangerous lunatic,” Sam, 58, who runs Tal Bagels across the street. “[The clean-up] that’s good, because they’re really doing a lot of bad things here.”

In recent weeks, Sam has said that people living in the tent city have been “banging on windows” and undressing in public. They even stole the donut tables.

“They get dressed outside, take a shower. Right outside. No clothes. They can get bad,” he said.

Noni, 45, a store clerk, said one homeless woman attacked a customer and urinated on the store floor.

“[A] a crazy woman across the street kicked a customer last weekend. She asked the client for money, but she refused and just kicked her!” he said.

“She was a big problem. She enters and exits the hospital. You can tell when she’ll be back living across the street because she’ll take the sugar, all the sugar [from the shop],” he said.

“A few weeks ago she came in and peed right here in front of my counter! What could I do?! I took a mop and washed it,” he said.

Homeless people say they flock to the site and set up tents on a 100-foot-long grate that spews hot air in an attempt to stay warm during the cold winter months.

At least 3,439 people were homeless on the streets of New York City last year, including in parks, subway stations and under overpasses, according to a report released by Mayor Eric Adams last month. This is more than 2,376 homeless people in 2021.

Meanwhile, there were at least 45,563 homeless people living in shelters in 2022, up from 52,409 the previous year.

In Sty Town, one of the neighbors called the camp a disgrace in a country as wealthy as the United States.

“It makes the new restaurant feel like Calcutta,” Joan Wind, 82, said of Rosemary’s East, which opened in 2021.

“This has been going on for several months. It has grown from one or two people to seven people, and now – up to 15 people. It’s been like that for a couple of months now. This is so sad.”

A city spokesman did not immediately respond to The Posts’ inquiry about whether the block had been cleared earlier or if additional camp cleanups were ongoing in the city.

But a Department of Sanitation official who arrived at the scene told The Post that he expected the camp to return soon.

“We will clean it up and it will be restored in no time,” he said.