A health insurance card, a 10-speed mountain bike, a blue men’s jacket and a microwave are among the few belongings stored by New York City officials this year after they cleared homeless people from street encampments.
The city is supposed to offer people the chance to store their personal items for 90 days. But a City Hall spokesperson said workers stored people’s belongings just 13 times between January and the end of May this year. The city would typically have conducted several hundred sweeps in that time.
“ That’s a shocking number that should raise a lot of red flags,” said Dave Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless. “There are so many people that the city is sweeping.”…