PATERSON — Shelly White-Smith smiled looking out her apartment window Tuesday morning as a construction crew dismantled a playground that for years had become a haven for drug users and unhoused people.
White-Smith said crack smoke from the Auburn Street playground often blew into her home when she had her windows open.
“I feel like my prayers have been answered,” she said. “I’ve been concerned for my safety and my life, and for my children, ever since I moved here,” added White-Smith, who has been in the apartment building next to the drug haven for a week.
Developer Charles Florio — with the blessings of the Bethel AME Church, which owns the playground property — deployed more than 15 people from his construction company to clean up what was supposed to be an urban pocket park.
The Florio workers used power tools to cut the playground equipment into smaller pieces for removal. They cleared weeds, bushes, and trees where trespassers could hide. They removed the tarps, blankets, clothes, and other items left behind by the squatters.
One member of the cleanup crew used a broom to sweep away seven packets of Narcan — a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses — which someone had left atop a stone monument paying tribute to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The plan is to build a fence blocking access to the property until the church and community leaders decide what to do with the lot.
More: Paterson spent $200K to fix up a park for kids. Drug addicts use it. And people dump trash
“Right now, all options are on the table,” said the Rev. Melvin Wilson, pastor of Bethel AME, as the work was being done.
“This was an unfortunate situation. But something had to be done about this,” Wilson added. “We have great sensitivity for the homeless and people who have chemical issues, but what’s been here does not represent what our church or the community want.”
People walking past the Florio operation called out their support for the work.
“It’s a shame the way it’s been,” said Dan Stanton, who lives on nearby Godwin Avenue. “People should know they can’t be sleeping in a playground.”
“It’s supposed to be for the children, not them,” said Keisha Smith, mother of a 4-year-old and 9-month-old, who said she never allowed her kids in the problem-plagued playground. “This right here is a celebration.”
7 squatters were using the park
About half an hour before Florio’s workers arrived at 8:45 a.m, about seven squatters were in the park. Some were sleeping. Others walked around in an apparent daze. Two were still there, huddled in blankets beneath a beach umbrella, when Paterson police officers arrived to clear out the final stragglers.
“You can’t be here anymore,” one officer told them.
“We know that,” said a man with one arm amputated who identified himself as Kevin. “That’s why we’re getting ready to leave.”
“I have no idea,” Kevin said when a reporter asked him where he would go. “Maybe I’ll go downtown and try to get some help. We’re just doing the best we can to survive each and every day.”
Kevin’s companion, Shonda, said they have been living in the playground for a few months. She expressed anger at the developer who sent the crew to clean out the playground property.
“Florio is putting up all this new housing, but there’s no place for the homeless to live,” Shonda said. “They say it’s affordable housing, but the homeless can’t afford to live there.”
Shonda said city officials ought to designate an area where people who are homeless can set up their own tent city. “Not everybody living out here on the streets is a drug user,” she said.
Kevin and Shonda walked away pushing wagons filled with their belongings. They couldn’t haul it all away in one trip, and left behind three bicycles, two beach umbrellas, and a shopping cart containing bags, bike seats, and an air pump — stuff they said they would retrieve later.
A man wearing a gray wool hat walked up to the playground stunned to find the Florio workers cleaning the site.
“Where is my stuff?” the man exclaimed. “That corner right there, that was me,” he added, pointing to a spot on the other side of the fence.
The man said he had been living in the playground on and off for three years. “The homeless can always find another place to stay,” he said about his plans.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Crew clears playground equipment, Narcan from Paterson park, shocking some homeless
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