The surging number of homeless in the city has left sidewalks so littered with sleeping bags and cardboard boxes that even vagrants are griping about the situation.
“It seems like there’s been a pretty big influx of the homeless population across the entire city,” a vagrant named Alex said as he sat on a blanket at 14th Street and First Avenue with a cardboard sign in hand.
“I’ve been in this general area for the past few years. I don’t know that the city is doing enough to help people in my position.”
Twin brothers Peter and Paul Barrero, 53, said they have been camping out at Broadway and 57th Street for more than a year, lounging on broken office chairs surrounded by their possessions, including bongos, a guitar and a shopping cart.
“They wanted to relocate us to transitional housing,” said Peter, holding a cigar butt. “That wasn’t what was supposed to be done.
“What was supposed to be done was get me and my twin brother into an apartment and make it into permanent housing. It never happened.”
A police source told The Post that homelessness has almost become “an accepted problem” and that cops aren’t being urged to crack down.
A vagrant named Jeff, 40, credited cops with protecting him and the couple he lives with in Hell’s Kitchen in a shelter of crates and umbrellas.
“They look out for us,” he said. “I can’t say anything bad about them.”
The city has reported a 39 percent increase in homelessness over 2016, with its annual homeless count recording 3,892 people living on the streets in February — the highest number since the survey began in 2005.
City Hall cited the de Blasio administration’s efforts to get help for homeless people.
“It can take anywhere from one to hundreds of contacts to help people come off the street,” a representative said, “which is why the city has invested time and resources through our HOME-STAT outreach program.”