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Homeless Man Says He's Lived Inside The Manhattan Bridge For Past Year
By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 16, 2014
Modified Apr 16, 2014
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 16, 2014
Modified Apr 16, 2014
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This weekend, we learned that some homeless people have taken to living inside the Manhattan Bridge with a lack of other options. One of those homeless people is Joey (or Joe), a 40-something Chinese immigrant who moved to NYC 13 years ago, and has been living in the bridge for the past year. He told the Post that he only moved inside the bridge because cops routinely tore down the encampment he built just off the bike on-ramp to the Manhattan Bridge. "Five times they take down. Five times!" he told them.
Joey (you can see a photo of him above, via James Nye) says that his new shanty is built into the underside of the upper deck of the bridge—above the bike lanes, below car traffic— about 150 feet east into the bridge’s Brooklyn-bound side. He used discarded wood from Chinatown to fortify the space, which is about 10.5 square feet in total.
Joey told the Daily Mail that he suffered a financial loss through gambling which led to his current homeless state. He also said that there are others who lived in or near to the bridge.
Police only discovered these spaces when Joey was spotted last Sunday climbing a fence to get to his "coffin-sized living spaces;" he was mistaken for a jumper, which led cops to discovering his shack. Even with the recent coverage of his living situation, cops have not taken it down.
Tagged
dumbo
homeless
living arrangements
manhattan bridge
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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