Major Hoarding Happening Beneath Hotel Scaffolding on Orchard Street

Somebody call Hoarders, there’s a junk mound on Orchard Street.

For the last few months, a homeless man has been camping beneath the decade-old scaffold affixed to the hotel at 139 Orchard Street (aka the Allen Street Hotel). The individual gradually amassed a collection of garbage, furniture, and other prized street possessions. And apparently, the man and his heap have not slowed construction of the lodge above. A neighbor concerned with overall safety of the block – between Delancey and Rivington – described the situation as follows:

It’s blocked the entire sidewalk and is now creeping into the street and often completely blocking the fire hydrant. Sanitation told me that he went to a shelter to get help and they got to remove some of his stuff, but then he came right back and they can’t touch it. He is smoking K2 there according to his friend, who while telling me this, unknowingly dropped his lit cigarette on the couch and it started to burn. The construction is still going on in the building that houses the scaffolding. They are just working around it. That scaffolding is in danger of collapsing as it’s not meant to be having stuff attached to it and leaned against it. I’ve even spoken to this person and their friends directly to try and help. I’m at a loss. It’s out of control.

This hotel site has long battled a problem with rotting refuse, human excrement, and other sundries. It came to a head in 2016 when the Lower East Side Partnership finally stepped in. The property had been better in recent years, though, yet began to devolve again shortly after the coronavirus shutdown took hold.