Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani stated Thursday he is not going to proceed sweeps of homeless encampments — which metropolis information reveals haven’t yielded any everlasting or supportive-housing referrals in additional than a yr.
Advocates slept outdoors Metropolis Corridor on Wednesday evening to protest the crackdowns, which Mayor Eric Adams started at the beginning of his administration.
Requested at an unrelated information convention if he would encourage the follow as soon as he’s mayor, Mamdani stated “No.”
“In case you are not connecting homeless New Yorkers to the housing that they so desperately want, then you definitely can not deem something you’re doing to be a hit,” Mamdani stated.
Knowledge reveals that town has spent greater than $6.4 million since 2024 to interrupt up encampments, with a multi-agency job pressure that features NYPD officers and employees from the Homeless Companies, Parks and Sanitation departments.
Though greater than 4,148 sweeps have been performed, not a single individual was supplied everlasting shelter by means of housing-voucher purposes, direct placements, or transfers to supportive housing, the numbers present.
In Could, town’s information confirmed that though 3,500 individuals have been moved out of homeless encampments, simply 114 have been positioned in shelters, based on Gothamist.
“We want housing, not handcuffs,” advocate Marcus Moore stated at a information convention Thursday, after spending the evening on the road with members of the Security Web Activists and Security Web Mission on the City Justice Heart.
Moore and others hope Mamdani will observe by means of on his pledge as soon as he takes workplace Jan. 1.
“I’m anticipating that it’s a brand new day additionally for homeless New Yorkers, as a result of sweeping individuals off the road, throwing away the medical [prescriptions] and all that kind of stuff, doesn’t work,” Moore stated.
A spokesperson for Mayor Adams didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Andrew Chappotin stated he has lived on the road for greater than three years and has skilled “dozens” of sweeps in that point.
“I’ve had all my property taken by the NYPD on quite a few events,” he stated.
Chappotin stated was not current throughout the first sweep.
“I went to the toilet, got here again and every part I owned was gone,” he stated. “That’s a really traumatizing expertise — it forces you to do stuff you don’t wish to do to outlive.”
Mamdani plans to handle avenue homelessness beneath his proposed Division of Group Security, which might shift police away from a lead position on these interactions.
“We’re going to take an strategy that understands its mission is connecting these New Yorkers to housing, whether or not it’s supportive housing, whether or not it’s rental housing, no matter sort of housing it’s,” Mamdani stated.
“What we’ve got seen is the therapy of homelessness as if it’s a pure a part of dwelling on this metropolis, when actually it’s extra usually a mirrored image of a political selection being made time and time once more.”
