Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani vowed Thursday to stop clearing homeless encampments throughout the Big Apple \u2014 ending a signature initiative pushed by the Adams administration since taking office. <\/p>\n
The Democratic Socialist flatly told reporters at an unrelated press conference in Manhattan that he would stop all sweeps of makeshift settlements come the new year when he is sworn in as mayor. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are not connecting homeless New Yorkers to the housing that they so desperately need, then you cannot deem anything you\u2019re doing to be a success,\u201d Mamdani said of the Adams policy, which has faced criticism for not getting those homeless people into permanent homes after the sweeps.<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old lawmaker made the policy shift clear on Thursday. Aristide Economopoulos\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to take an approach that understands its mission is connecting those New Yorkers to housing,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it\u2019s supportive housing, whether it\u2019s rental housing, whatever kind of housing it is, because what we have seen is the treatment of homelessness as if it is a natural part of living in this city, when in fact, it\u2019s more often a reflection of a political choice being made.\u201d<\/p>\n
The young incoming mayor, though, offered up no specifics on how he planned to address scores of complaints about the homeless camps around the city.<\/p>\n
According to 311 data, city officials received more than 45,000 complaints for encampments in the first 11 months of 2025.<\/p>\n
The city receives thousands of complaints about homeless encampments each year. Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n
Mayor Adams made the sweep a key initiative. Stephen Yang<\/p>\n
Adams made clearing out tent cities a top priority after taking office in 2022. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot tolerate these makeshift, unsafe houses on the side of highways,\u00a0in trees<\/a>, in front of schools, in parks. This is just not acceptable, and it\u2019s something I\u2019m just not going to allow to happen,\u201d\u00a0Adams railed in March of 2022<\/a> when he kicked off the initiative.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n But few of those caught up in the sweeps ever made<\/a> it into permanent housing. <\/p>\n