Residents claim homeless have overrun ritzy Lower Manhattan neighborhoods

It’s the Village of the damned.

Bums are overrunning the West Village and Chelsea, according to terrified residents who are circulating a petition to remedy the crisis since police and lawmakers are unable or unwilling to help.

Longtime denizens say the problem has never been worse, with vagrants shooting up drugs and relieving and even pleasuring themselves in full view.

“I’ve been here forever, and I’ve traveled all over the world, and I’m scared in Chelsea,” said one local, who like several interviewed by The Post was too shaken to provide her name.

“The last three years, it’s been building, and this summer it hit its pinnacle. It’s out of control.”

The Chelsea woman said she won’t leave her apartment without Mace and a Kevlar vest.

Lil Allen launched the petition late last month, calling on Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Mayor de Blasio to address the “alarming increase” in the number of drug addicts and vagrants in the area.

The petition, posted on the website iPetitions, had collected 262 signatures as of late Saturday.

“It is a dangerous and unsanitary situation for those on the streets and the people who live in the neighborhood,” it reads.

“There are so many families with children who live here. There are people who are now afraid to walk their dogs and some of our subway stations have turned into homeless encampments.”

Other longtime residents of the neighborhoods — which boast some of the highest rents in the Big Apple — aired their complaints in the petition page’s comments section:

• “The streets of Chelsea, especially Eighth Avenue, are worse than I remember them and we have been here for 40 years. Drugs, very dirty sidewalks, and people passed out on the sidewalks,” Ellen Wexler wrote. “Our police say their hands are tied to improve the situation.”
• “Homeless on 23rd Street and Eighth Avenue lay right in front of the subway entrance, drinking alcohol and fighting,” wrote Arthur Massei.
• “We deal every day with homeless and vagrants using our buildings as toilets” Harriet Brand wrote. “I have lived in the West Village for 33 years and have never had this situation before!”
• John Zeman, who said he moved from San Francisco in 2017 to escape a “horrible homeless issue,” issued a plea: “Don’t sit by and let this great neighborhood and city become another San Francisco.”

City Hall, the NYPD and Johnson’s office all told The Post that partner agencies perform daily outreach in the neighborhoods.

But resident Janet Murphy isn’t so sure Hizzoner has her back.

“What makes anyone believe that our existing mayor gives a damn?” she said.

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