Make New York Post a Preferred Source A homeless encampment has taken hold in a Manhattan park just steps from City Hall — with the stench of human waste and garbage spilling across the space as children play nearby.
The camp recently cropped up in Columbus Park, where about a half-dozen tents and makeshift shelters were erected under the cover of the park’s raised stone pavilion to lord over the public space.
And residents have made themselves at home under the pavilion — with a couch hauled up alongside the tents, tables, an electrical charging station full of cables and adapters, clothing draping the railings and a steady hum of music coming from some of the tents.
“I personally wouldn’t go up there,” said 30-year-old parkgoer Kir-el McKeon. “I think that it should probably be removed because it is a community center.”
A man with what appeared to be blood on his pants and legs then walked up and said, “Can you help out the homeless?”
“I think that’s unsafe,” McKeon said after seeing the man. “I don’t think he should be around, especially if there’s children. That should be stopped.”
It’s unclear when the encampment appeared, but 311 complains about the park exploded this year — with 49 reports coming in between January and September, compared to 12 across all of 2025.
That surge coincided with Mayor Zohran Mamdani taking office — and immediately barring the NYPD from clearing homeless encampments until workers from the Department of Homeless Services have done rounds of outreach.
Encampments across the city have flourished since, sometimes taking root for weeks at a time — as happened over the summer when a settlement stretched some 12 blocks along 11th Avenue, turning the area into a trash-strewn den where drug use and prostitution were rampant.
Columbus Park appeared to be fast on its way there — with trash spilling down from the pavilion while a thick scent of urine wafted around the nearby patio and field, where people played dominoes and kids ran across the grass.
“The regulatory bodies within the government should certainly be doing something about this,” said 50-year-old Henry Schroeder. “I definitely think the regulation in New York is very, very poor.
“We don’t have a lot of public space here in New York City,” he added. “And so, obviously — especially green space — so you want as much available for the people who live here.”
“I don’t I don’t know if public places are the best for people to kind of just be sitting there, people coming to enjoy the park,” he said. “I just think it’s their space, too, but I feel like if they’re staying for a long period of time, it affects other people’s enjoyment of the park.”
