City outreach workers remove trash at West Side homeless encampment

City outreach workers removed some trash at a homeless encampment near the Intrepid Museum on Wednesday, five days after initial reports about the site. The 12-block area along Manhattan's West Side still contained most of the tents and makeshift shelters that had been documented earlier in the week. Workers did not dismantle the structures.

Background on the encampment The site stretches from the Jacob Javits Center on 34th Street to the Intrepid Museum on 46th Street. Some campers had connected to city utility poles for electricity, prompting police to intervene at least twice on Tuesday. A dumpster on West 45th Street held discarded needles, food containers, and other debris collected during the cleanup.

Policy and response The mayor's policy requires outreach and homeless services staff to visit an encampment before police can remove it, with a seven-day waiting period after that visit. The order to address the West Side site came on Tuesday. One camper told a reporter that most people at the site wanted to remain out of sight.

The area is largely commercial and industrial. State attorney general candidate Saritha Komatireddy visited the encampment and posted on X that businesses were struggling and public spaces were overtaken by disorder. Former NYPD Commissioner William Bratton told a reporter this week that the scene recalled earlier periods of visible street disorder in the city.