The NYPD on Tuesday rousted the drug-abusing denizens of a homeless encampment under the Metro-North tracks on East 125th Street at Park Avenue — just blocks from where Pope Francis will visit a Catholic school.
“They just kicked us out. They said, ‘Important people is coming by,’ ” said one man who calls the Harlem sidewalk home.
Cops have been playing cat and mouse with the hobos for weeks — but this time, warned them to stay away or face arrest.
“They say if we don’t move, they will give us a ticket or lock us up, and they don’t want to lock us up,” the man said.
A homeless woman added, “They have been coming regularly, but more now that the pope is coming.”
One man, who identified himself only as Ian G, 38, remained defiant.
“Sooner or later, I’m going back. This is where we live. We got nowhere to go. F–k him [the pope]. He don’t live here. We live here. How can they move me for someone coming here for a couple hours? Just because we are a subculture doesn’t mean we don’t exist,” he ranted as several cops stood nearby.
“They ain’t no Roman Catholics here. Go to Washington Heights or something where you got Roman Catholics. This is Harlem.”
Francis is scheduled to visit Our Lady Queen of Angels School on East 112th Street in East Harlem on Friday.
The NYPD also is expected to remove public seating that has turned into another homeless encampment on a stretch of West 32nd Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues — less than a block from where the pope will say Mass at Madison Square Garden.
“The cops came here yesterday and told us we’d have to go because the pope’s coming. They’re gonna pull all these seats up,” a homeless man named Lucas said.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, meanwhile, said the department will deploy a specially trained task force of about three dozen cops to tackle the 125th Street camp.