Occupy City Hall's New Life as Homeless Camp: 'Not Pretty All the Time'

[brooklynite]

New York Times

When it first kicked off last month, the activist encampment that billed itself as Occupy City Hall was viewed as the latest wave of the city’s George Floyd protests — an innovative political space that, under summer skies, attracted peaceful crowds to speeches and teach-ins focused on a narrow goal: cutting $1 billion from the New York Police Department’s budget.

In the past week, however, the number of protesters has dropped off sharply and those who have remained have taken on a new responsibility: caring for dozens of homeless people who were drawn to the compound for its free food, open-air camping and communal sensibility.

It has not been easy.

Brawls have erupted. Passers-by and journalists have been harassed. Local residents — even those who say they support the camp’s politics — have complained that it has turned into a disorderly shantytown where violence has occurred. Several medics who had been there from the start announced this week that they were leaving, citing “a lack of safety” in a statement.