A small encampment of homeless people defiantly stood its ground against New York City police and sanitation workers before authorities moved in Wednesday afternoon to clear tents, blankets and other belongings as part of a crackdown launched by Mayor Eric Adams to rid his city of people living in the streets.

Police arrested two homeless people and several of their advocates who for hours had shielded a handful of homeless people from being removed from a street in the Lower East Side, amid the cold and rain.

Police have already cleared more than 250 such encampments, more than half of them in Manhattan.

“I don’t need a safe haven or a shelter. I need a home,” said a homeless woman who identified her “professional name” as Synthia Vee, hours before she was taken into custody with another homeless person. For much of the day, she and a handful of other homeless people resisted leaving their patch of Ninth Street, where they have been squatting for days.

“I have something to say to Mayor Adams. Shelters — no. Safe havens — not quite. Apartments — that’s the one,” she said. “He’s the new guy. We’ll see. He’s a Democrat, but he’s also a cop.”

The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But he has said that he wants to clean up parts of the city that are “dirty” and “unsafe.”

“I made a commitment that we were going to zero in on encampments so that people who are homeless can live with dignity,” Adams said last week on CNN. “There’s nothing dignified about living on the streets.”

Advocates for the homeless have denounced the mayor’s move as heartless and were frustrated that Adams has taken action without releasing a comprehensive — and compassionate — plan to tackle the issues contributing to homelessness.

Josiah Haken, the chief executive officer of City Relief, one of dozens of agencies providing support services to the unhoused, said he was “so disappointed” the mayor would tear down encampments without an individualized action plan for the people being displaced.

“This approach will only increase distrust between the housed and the unhoused communities, and it will only push homeless New Yorkers into hiding instead of into housing,” Haken said.

(AP)