The home had a mattress, a sofa and a television set rigged to a subway power source. Racy posters covered the concrete walls. The man's clothes were in a neatly folded pile.
The man told Borroni he had a job washing dishes but couldn't afford rent.
Not far away one recent morning, a police outreach squad opened an emergency exit on a traffic island on Houston Street near Elizabeth Street.
A wave of foul air rushed from the blackness below.
High-powered flashlights revealed that several people were living there, taking refuge on a stairwell passageway leading to F train tracks.
Next to a black plastic bag full of clothes, two umbrellas stood in a corner. Jugs of water, candles and a plastic bottle of European Mystique Hand and Body Gel were lined up on a set of steps.
Another landing was furnished with a rolled-up futon mattress covering a pile of clothes and two milk crates turned upside down, as well as a broom and a pair of liquor bottles.
On other landings, cops found a rug, a soiled blanket, more clothing and a newspaper.
The outreach unit had been here before - and workers had cleaned out the space. But the homeless, who make their way along a catwalk from one of two nearby subway stations, keep coming back.
"They want to be left alone," O'Leary said. "If you go repeatedly, you're disrupting them - it's not a comfortable place for them to be anymore."
