- NYC Mayor Eric Adams responded to criticism he's received over clearing homeless encampments.
- WNYC radio host Brian Lehrer played Adams audio of a homeless woman who resisted the clearing.
- "She made a conscious decision … to live on the street because she wanted housing," Adams said.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended his decision to clear more than 200 homeless encampments in recent days, which has involved city crews throwing away the belongings of those affected.
Adams spoke with veteran Big Apple radio host Brian Lehrer in an interview on WNYC, which the mayor conducted from inside of a moving car on his way to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
"I wanna play you a 30 second clip of one of those people with an outreach worker on what the person wants if you're gonna kick them out of where they feel safe," Lehrer told Adams.
The audio featured Sinthia Vee, who told The Gothamist during an encampment clearing on Manhattan's Lower East Side that she did not want to leave. Vee explained her desire to avoid re-entering the city's shelter system, which has been described by myriad advocates and people experiencing homelessness as decrepit and dangerous.
"I'm not spending three years getting staph infections in another shelter, waiting while everyone says, no, they won't rent to me," Vee said. "It's not gonna happen."
"What would it take to get you off the streets?" an outreach worker asked her.
"An apartment! Housing is the solution to homelessness," Vee replied. "I'm not crazy, I don't need to be committed, I don't need drug treatment — I need housing. Affordable housing … When are we gonna see housing?"
A few minutes into a lengthy response, Adams said he's aware that not all New Yorkers experiencing homelessness are on the streets because of untreated mental illness.
"As the young woman stated, she doesn't have mental health issues," Adams said. "She made a conscious decision that she wanted to live on the street because she wanted housing."
The mayor then pointed out the need for Gov. Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature to deliver more funding for affordable housing in the state budget, which ran over the April 1 deadline and is still being negotiated.
"I agree with her," Adams said of Vee earlier in the exchange. "We have to build more affordable housing."
Lehrer initially asked Adams what he would say to the constituent "who doesn't think you're presenting her with viable housing options if you're going to close the encampment?"
"I'm saying to that New Yorker and other New Yorkers, 'it's about dignity'," Adams said, occasionally cutting in and out while riding in the car. "When I looked at some of those encampment sites — some of them I visited at one, two, three in the morning — looked inside, talked to people who are homeless, I saw people living in human waste. Drug paraphernalia, no showers, no clean clothing, living like that. That is not dignified, it is not acceptable."
Adams went on to argue that while others may "ignore it and act like they don't see it," he will take action specifically against encampments.
"And you have the legal right, according to law, to sleep on the street," the mayor said. "You don't have the legal right to build encampments on the street. That's not acceptable, and I'm not going to continue to ignore that in our city.
The first-term mayor added that his administration is "giving people options" — such as "Safe Haven Beds" with more mental health services — and reiterated that he visits shelters "unannounced" in the early hours of the morning.
"I want to see the quality of product that we're producing," Adams said. "And clearly, we have clean, safe sites for New Yorkers who are looking for a place as we transition into permanent housing."