NYC residents furious over homeless tent encampment in Queens neighborhoodBy Conor Skelding
February 5, 2022
At least five homeless people have turned a stretch of Whitney Avenue in Elmhurst, Queens into an urban camping ground.
The encampment has persisted for two years — with the city taking no action, despite 41 complaints made through 311 since Jan. 1, 2020.
“Everybody complains. It’s too dirty. Sometimes Sanitation comes, sometimes they don’t. If they don’t come, it’s a mess,” Steven Li, 45, manager of nearby Getting Well Rx Pharmacy Inc., said.
Littered along the sidewalk, gutter, and street are bags of trash, clothes, office chairs, a shopping cart and milk crates.
The encampment popped up around the start of the pandemic, Li said. “We call [the police] so many times. The cops don’t come. They told us, ‘What can we do?'”
Li’s shop borders the avenue — and he said his landlord had to lock up a connecting stairwell after the homeless used it “as a bathroom,” making deliveries difficult and inconveniencing customers.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2022/02/05/locals-frustrated-by-homeless-living-in-tents-in-queens/
