The Tompkins Square Park Riots

Though houselessness has been a problem for centuries, and the earliest documentation around the houseless community in New York is from circa 1800, the “modern wave” of NY’s houseless population can be traced to the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in the 1950s and deindustrialization of the city in the 1960s. While calls for deinstitutionalization were pushed by civil rights leaders, the response was not to care for those in mental health crisis. Thousands of long term inmates were discharged from mental institutions or prisons, and given little to no resources to sustain themselves otherwise. When the city’s economy also began to shift, houselessness became a problem not just for those who were ill or experiencing addiction.  “Prior to the 1980s they [the homeless] were the stereotypical middle aged, white men, who had similar alcohol problems, living in skid row areas like the Bowery in New York,” explains Eric Hirsch, a historian of homelessness and professor at Providence College in Rhode Island. “We then saw new groups emerge: younger people and families—a much more economically-driven homeless.” 

In the midst of this explosion, state courts compelled New York City to provide shelter for the homeless, as the landmark 1981 case Callahan vs. Carey established in—and only in—New York City a right to shelter. Then Mayor Ed Koch created several affordable housing programs including building shelters and putting people in hotels. Still, this administration began a major campaign against the houseless community, conducting many sweeps of encampments.  

The next administration, led by David Dinkins, called for creating transitional apartments and permanent housing, as well as specialized services for the homeless people living with disabilities and special needs. While this was initially successful, many of Dinkins’ plans were abandoned or repackaged. In 1989, the city spent more than $320 million to shelter a total of about 25,000 single homeless people and 11,000 homeless families. Members of the administration said however that they just did not have the funds to keep up with their promises and critics said that while Dinkins was “kinder”, his policies were more of the same. Giuliani then followed with his “get tough” policies which criminalized many New Yorkers. Time limits on shelter stays, work requirements and narrowed eligibility rules were hallmarks of the mayor’s approach. Today, according to the The Bowery Mission one in every 106 New Yorkers is experiencing houselessness — nearly 80,000 adults and children.

According to the National Council for the Homeless, the leading causes of homelessness are economic:

• Lack of affordable housing

• Foreclosures

• Lack of employment opportunities

But the roots of homelessness can go much deeper, including:

• Trauma/Severe Loss

• Family conflict/Breakup

• Substance abuse disorder

• Criminal history

• Mental illness

• Domestic abuse

• Age out of foster care

In early 1988, hundreds of  houseless people were living in Tompkins Square Park. As the area around the park was becoming home to more affluent residents, calls came for the Tent City at Tompkins to be removed.  Groups like the Avenue A Block Association, urged Manhattan Community Board 3 to install a curfew on the park. However, groups such as Friends of Tompkins Square Park and some political organizers and community activists elsewhere in the neighborhood were against a curfew. On June 28, 1988, a curfew was enacted, stating that the park had to be cleared every day at 1 A.M. For several weeks, police officers enforced the curfew, pushing residents further and further from the center of the park. Protesters gathered nearly every day but a larger action was planned for August 6th.

On that day 200 protesters marched through St. Mark’s Place holding banners proclaiming “Gentrification is Class War.” Among them were artists like Allen Ginsberg and Clayton Patterson. Police Captain Gerald McNamara told reporters on the scene ''It's time to bring a little law and order back to the park and restore it to the legitimate members of the community''. And over a stretch of four hours 44 people were injured, 9 were arrested and the next morning 82 complaints of police brutality were filed. In the crowd, several photographers and videographers filmed police officers removing their badges, beating people with clubs, and hurling racial slurs at certain people gathered there. Mark Timerow, a man who lived nearby and supported the houseless community said ''The sickness of doing this on the coldest day of the year, just before Christmas, is despicable. It means that without shelters, some of these people will die…This is the military solution to homelessness.'We should look on this as the first official act of the Dinkins administration.''

Though it was made clear by both the media and the NYPD that police officers were ultimately responsible for escalating the violence and inciting the riot, no police officers were disciplined for their involvement. The New York City government eventually destroyed the homeless encampments in Tompkins Square Park in 1991. The park closed from 1991 to 1992 for restoration, even though the underlying reasons were to ease the tensions in the area and keep homeless people out of the park.

On April 6th 2022, a similar sweep of houseless encampments in the East Village dubbed “Anarchy Row”  was met by similar protests. Chants of “Keys not Sweeps” rang out but hundreds of residents were displaced and several arrests were made - highlighting the continued struggle and how little change has been made in 34 years. This “cleanup” was one of more than 200 similar sweeps that took place over 12 days.