(DOCUMENTED) Rebecca Chowdhury@rebecca_chowd, April 17, 2021

Eduardo is surrounded by a pile of cans and the tent where he sleeps. He worked in a restaurant for five years before losing his job during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I still had money so I was able to last about two months in my apartment. Then the money finished,” Eduardo’s voice trailed off as the sun shone in his face, “I started living here and there.” Eduardo, who declined to share his real name, was forced out of the room he was informally renting and as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, he did not receive any government assistance.

Eduardo is one of about thirty homeless people living in an encampment in a quiet alley in Elmhurst, Queens that’s dotted with tents. The immigrant neighborhood garnered national headlines when it became the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 13 patients dying in one day in its public hospital.  A year later, groups of mostly undocumented immigrants have taken refuge in the streets. 

Interviews with local advocates and city data indicate that homelessness is rising locally and citywide, as the most marginalized residents struggle to recover from the pandemic. Neighborhoods like Elmhurst, where much of the population is foreign born, were hit the hardest by the pandemic and many people lost their jobs, which has led to an increase in people losing their homes, organizations doing street outreach and advocates say. Yet, the City has responded through increased cleanups or sweeps, aimed to displace homeless individuals from areas where they have set up shelter, which advocates say only increases their suffering. 

“The sweeps are traumatizing,” said Raquel Namuche, an organizer with the Ridgewood Tenants Union, which builds power among tenants and homeless residents, “People get upset because their property, the only things they have on their backs, are thrown out in a violent and uncaring way.”

Within a half mile thoroughfare in Elmhurst, the number of sweeps nearly doubled in 2020, according to analysis by Documented, as the number increased from 12 sweeps in 2019 to 23 in 2020 (the data from 2019 ends on 12/11/2019 while the data from 2020 include the entire year). The Safety Net Project, which advocates for safe and secure housing and resources for marginalized communities, obtained this data through a public records request. 

Source: https://documentedny.com/2021/04/08/elmhurst_encampments/