January 1, NYC’s New Mayor Ends Homeless Encampment Sweeps

Wyatt’s Take

• Mayor-elect Mamdani plans to stop homeless encampment sweeps.
• City officials received over 45,000 complaints about encampments this year.
• Homeless numbers have soared with more illegal immigrants arriving.

New York City’s new leader Zohran Mamdani says he’ll stop the city’s effort to clear homeless camps, a move that breaks from current Mayor Eric Adams’ approach. This reverses the focus on clearing out the “unsafe houses” many residents have complained about.

Despite officials getting more than 45,000 complaints about these encampments this year, Mamdani argues that past sweeps ignored real housing needs for homeless New Yorkers.

“We are going to take an approach that understands its mission is connecting those New Yorkers to housing,” Mamdani said. “Whether it’s supportive housing, whether it’s 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’s more often a reflection of a political choice being made.”

Right now, city hall directs people to report homeless camps and says these setups are not allowed. Mamdani, who won big on promises of new affordable housing and rent freezes, has not shared details on how he’ll handle the flood of complaints or whether he’ll change the reporting system.

In just two years, New York City’s homeless population has doubled, hitting nearly 90,000 with illegal immigrants fueling those numbers, according to the state.

Mamdani says he’s relying on a city audit that found the Adams sweep policy rarely connected the homeless to real shelter, even after dozens of raids.

“The evidence is clear: by every measure, the homeless sweeps failed,” City Comptroller Brad Lander said.

The current mayor’s office pushed back, arguing the audits were misleading and over 500 homeless people did get safe housing through recent cleanups.

City officials claim New York still has the lowest rate of unsheltered homelessness among big U.S. cities.

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Wyatt Matters

This story hits home for folks across the heartland. When leaders change the rules on something as basic as keeping public spaces safe, everyday families pay the price—not the politicians. Middle Americans know you can’t solve real problems by ignoring them or shifting blame.

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