TIMES SQ. UALOR
Homeless take shelter on Broadway
It’s gone from the Crossroads of the World to the Clothesline for the Homeless.
A group of vagrants turned a bit of Times Square scaffolding into a makeshift shelter and drying rack Sunday morning after getting drenched in the overnight rain.
More than a half-dozen homeless people hung their wet clothing to dry on a metal rail that surrounds 1441 Broadway while they huddled under blankets in a series of “rooms” built from cardboard boxes.
“I’m usually on the other corner, but I came over here because of the rain and there’s scaffolding here,” said Colorado native Natasha Limpharis, 40.
The homeless people spread their stuff out in front of a vacant storefront on the south side of West 41st Street between Seventh Avenue and Broadway.
“I’m nervous about leaving my stuff here because it might get taken or thrown out, but I need to go make money for the Laundromat,” said one man who wouldn’t give his name but said he was 24 and from New Jersey.
The beggar said he chose to bed down on a Manhattan sidewalk rather than in a city shelter because, “You have more freedom.
“When you’re on the street, yeah, it’s dirty, but at least you don’t force yourself to live with rats and roaches or are forced to be with people you don’t like,” he said. “There’s too many people and personalities in one room. It’s like being in jail. Who would put themselves in that situation?”
On Sunday afternoon, two NYPD officers passed the shantytown on the other side of the street but didn’t do anything, despite Mayor de Blasio’s 2015 claim that “we’re not going to tolerate homeless encampments.”
A tourist from Philadelphia said she had “never seen” anything like the homeless assemblage.
“It’s gotten worse since the last time we were here,” she added.
A New Yorker who gave his name only as John said he had “great sympathy” for the homeless — and blamed de Blasio.
“We have a mayor who really doesn’t know how to handle the homeless,” he said. “He’s too politically correct to do the right thing.”
Likhon Magumdem, 45, of Queens, called the scene “very disgusting.”
“They make the sidewalk look very dirty,” he said. “This is a bad situation.”
City Hall at first said the vagrants’ setup didn’t meet the official definition of a “homeless encampment” and therefore wasn’t subject to being dismantled.
But by 6 p.m., police showed up and started breaking up the streetside flophouse.