A councilman from New York City has proclaimed a humanitarian emergency on the West Side of Manhattan, describing a bleak scenario of streets overrun with homeless individuals who are struggling with drug addiction and mental health issues in a letter sent to Mayor Eric Adams.
Councilman Erik Bottcher, who serves Manhattan’s third district, urgently asked Adams for “immediate aid in tackling the humanitarian disaster developing on the streets and in the subways of New York City” in a letter dated July 18, 2024.
Bottcher pointed out several locations, including portions of Times Square, the Garment District, and Washington State Park, as being “especially critical.”
NEW YORK CITY MAYOR ERIC ADAMS IMPLEMENTS ‘HOMELESS BILL OF RIGHTS’ TO ENHANCE LEGAL PROTECTIONS FOR HOMELESS INDIVIDUALS
This past Monday, Sept. 12, 2022, at midday, a man slept on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, just one block from Times Square, his face covered by an SEIU Local 1199 sign demanding “prime pay!” for workers. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
“In these areas and more, large groups of individuals are partaking in various illegal and antisocial behaviors, instilling significant distress and fear among residents, many of whom are elderly or families with small children,” he stated.
The New York Post sent reporters to the vicinity after Bottcher’s letter. The journalists reported encounters with multiple “unstable, drug-affected homeless individuals” during their visits over the past two weeks. They noted the frequent presence of needles on the ground, citing “one glassy-eyed junkie walking around with a needle protruding from his hand along 36th Street near the busy Penn Station.” Seemingly distressed individuals were observed passed out on benches and pavement, or meandering through the streets, often barefoot, challenging passersby.
A security officer working in the area, only identified as Fisher by the Post, shared with reporters that he witnesses drug use “nonstop” in the public courtyard at the Midtown Holiday Inn hotel. He mentioned that public urination and defecation are commonplace.
“It’s chaos out here,” Fisher remarked to the Post. “They even have sexual encounters on the benches. They urinate and defecate in plain view.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 30: A homeless man sits at Times Square on November 30, 2022 in New York City. New York City Mayor Eric Adams rolled out a plan to allow mentally ill homeless people to be hospitalized against their will. (Photo by Leonardo Munoz/VIEWpress)
Staff at the Midtown Holiday Inn have reportedly started activating the sprinklers to deter vagrants, as reported by the Post.
HOMELESS CRISIS CONTINUES TO RISE ACROSS THE US AS NYC AND LA ARE EXPECTED TO BE HARDEST HIT
“However, some homeless individuals have turned it into a shower experience — even using soap, as one hotel guest complained in a review,” the outlet stated.
Others enter the hotel “cursing at us,” said Rocky Caban, 45, the hotel’s front desk supervisor. “They attempt to assault us. We have a guard outside to prevent them from coming in,” he added.
“Every day we have to endure this. I see the same individuals day after day. I watch as they are taken away in ambulances, and then they return the next day,” Caban stated.
A homeless man partially blocks a subway stairway in New York City on Sept. 10, 2022. (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)
PIX11, a news outlet based in New York City, reported comparable observations during their visit to the area last week.
“Within the first 10 minutes on West 30th Street, a PIX11 News crew witnessed an EMS team remove a man from the sidewalk, another individual exposing himself, and a third showing signs of a mental episode,” they scribed.
Bottcher referred to this situation as a “heart-wrenching reality.”
“This situation not only brings immense suffering to these individuals but also adversely influences residents and businesses, especially as summer progresses,” he articulated in the letter.
He noted that the NYPD is “overburdened” with responses to calls on “open drug sales, property damage, verbal and physical threats, shoplifting, and other unlawful behaviors.”
Bottcher urged Adams to broaden his contentious B-HEARD initiative to the West Side of Manhattan. Launched in 2021, the program aims to connect individuals dealing with mental health challenges with professionals and is currently functioning in 31 precincts throughout New York City, as reported by PIX11. This initiative dispatches paramedics, social workers, and other unarmed first responders to address specific 911 calls instead of NYPD officers.
Mayor Eric Adams participates in a press event while a NYPD officer claims he led a fundraising scheme to assist the New York City mayor. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)
Adams reportedly committed to extending the program citywide last year, but the plan has reportedly stalled, as noted by the outlet.
“Manhattan’s West Side urgently requires this program,” Bottcher emphasized in his correspondence.
He also requested Adams’s backing for legislation he proposed which would mandate the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to assign licensed social workers to NYPD precincts citywide.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Our neighborhoods are in dire need of assistance right now,” he stressed. “We cannot allow the current situation to persist.
The mayor’s office did not provide a response to Fox News Digital’s request for comments.
