Surprising no one, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani recently announced that he will discontinue Mayor Adams’ policy of conducting homeless encampment sweeps.
During and after the COVID era, tents being used as shelter for the homeless have popped up all across New York City, creating enormous quality-of-life concerns. Drugs, needles, and crime — all while the homeless, many of whom suffer from various mental health conditions, starve, freeze, and have no access to a shower, warm meals, clean water, or medical treatment. Surrendering our streets to tent cities is no dignified way for the homeless to live or fair for the public to contend with.
The Adams strategy was to conduct encampment sweeps and pair NYPD officers, Breaking Ground, and the Department of Homeless Services to approach homeless New Yorkers and convince them to enter a shelter facility. If they refused, they would be left untouched. Many of them, however, accepted services and moved from the streets into a shelter. My office was directly involved in this process for years and witnessed the issues firsthand.
While I have had my share of disagreements and disappointments with Mayor Adams in the last four years, this approach was miles apart from the previous “hands-off” model exemplified by Bill de Blasio — and is worlds better than what Mamdani is about to implement.
Mamdani will be using his new “Department of Community Safety” to address the issue. His method leaves the social worker component intact, but ultimately abandons the homeless individuals, community safety, and quality of life by refusing to sweep the encampments. It will discourage the homeless individuals from obtaining dignified housing by allowing tents, drugs, needles, and unsanitary conditions to remain.
These will be next to schools, parks, and public spaces — and no one will be empowered to do a thing about it. Further, this disaster will be detrimental to our economy as property values will decrease and New Yorkers will undoubtedly move on to greener pastures.
While seemingly being empathetic to the homeless, cancelling encampment sweeps is actually reckless and inhumane. It relies on sloganeering, hashtags and emotional manipulation over actual results and understanding the harsh realities of our streets.
Mamdani’s tactics will only turn our daily quality of life from bad to worse. There’s something to be said about being able to pick up the phone after an encampment is reported, get the NYPD local precinct on the line, and in the interim, Breaking Ground can conduct street homeless outreach and offer services.
Considering Mamdani purportedly held a Housing Services position as listed on his very light resume, he should know this by now.
In addition to policies on the books, which have already incentivized the shelter-nonprofit-industrial complex, doubling down and expanding an already failed housing-first system that is a discredited model across urban America is insanity. More of the same won’t cut it. Ending the few somewhat sensible policies won’t work.
It is clear that a common-sense coalition must now go on the offensive and propose a civic alternative across the entire policy spectrum. Sweeping encampments should be part of the solution. So should re-opening shuttered psychiatric hospitals, and involuntary commitment of individuals who are a danger to themselves or others.
Every winter, the entire nation does the Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE). An annual census of the street homeless population that added to the shelter population, makes up the estimated number of homeless people in America.
I challenge our incoming Mayor to participate and take a look at what he has just expanded. It’s not a pretty sight. With roughly 158,000 homeless, and the estimated street homeless population has been steadily increasing.
Now, with encampments being encouraged more and more with this policy reversal, expect lawlessness and degradation of quality of life all across the five boroughs.
Inna Vernikov is a City Council member representing the 48th District in South Brooklyn.
