Hochul pushes back on Mamdani’s plan to end sweeps of city homeless encampments, siding with Mayor Adams

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday came out against Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s plan to end New York City’s homeless encampment sweeps.

The governor said enforcement, including sweeps when needed, must remain part of the city’s homelessness response, siding with outgoing Mayor Eric Adams. Her position adds new pressure to Mamdani, who announced Thursday that he will halt the sweeps once he takes office, arguing the initiative has failed to connect people living on the streets with stable housing.

A spokesperson for Hochul told amNewYork on Friday evening that the governor does not believe that “allowing New Yorkers to sleep on sidewalks or under bridges is a humane solution to homelessness.”

“She supports an approach that combines enforcement – including sweeps when needed – with connection to supportive housing and mental health and substance abuse services,” said Kara Cumoletti, Hochul’s Albany press secretary.

At a Thursday press conference, Mamdani said the sweeps have not helped unsheltered New Yorkers access “the housing that they so desperately need,” and accused the city of treating homelessness as an inevitable part of urban life rather than the result of political decisions.

“If you are not connecting homeless New Yorkers to the housing that they so desperately need, you cannot deem anything you’re doing to be a success,” Mamdani said.

He added that his administration would focus on linking people to supportive or rental housing rather than continuing the multi-agency clearings, with street homelessness addressed through his proposed Department of Community Safety, which would reduce the police’s leading role in these interactions.

“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,” he said.

Adams says Mamdani stance would ‘create quality-of-life nightmare’

Eric Adams points to a homeless encampment filled with needles during a March 2022 press conferencePhoto by Dean Moses

Mayor Adams, who has championed the policy since taking office in 2022, pushed back against Mamdani’s stance early Friday, warning that ending the sweeps would “create a quality-of-life nightmare.”

“I won’t criticize him [Mamdani] on every issue, but when a policy harms New Yorkers, I have to speak up,” Adams said in a video posted to his personal account on X, formerly Twitter.

“Showing compassion for those sleeping on the streets is not a sweep; it is humane,” the mayor went on. “Ending this action will create a quality-of-life nightmare. Just look at cities that allow encampments, and you’ll see the damage.”

Adams added that throughout his nearly four years in office, he has remained “adamant about cleaning those encampments” and urged the incoming administration to reconsider. “Labeling the abandonment as progress is a slap in the face to real progress,” he said. “It’s not just safety, and we need to call it out for the disgrace that it is.”

Even so, advocates have backed Mamdani’s stance, pointing to years of data showing the operations have long failed to connect unsheltered residents with meaningful support and have instead repeatedly displaced the same groups of people.

“The Adams administration’s reliance on inhumane encampment sweeps, criminalization, and involuntary hospitalization as a way to address homelessness in New York City has been an embarrassment and an unmitigated failure,” said Dave Giffen, executive director of Coalition for the Homeless, in a statement.

“We’re glad to hear that the Mayor-elect Mamdani agrees with what we’ve been saying for decades, that the only way to solve homelessness in New York City is to connect people with safe and affordable permanent housing. We look forward to working with his administration to make that goal a reality,” he added.

Reports show impact of homeless encampment sweeps

Homeless individuals attempted to salvage their tent during a encampment sweep in Manhattan, Dec, 2022.Photo by Dean Moses

The sweeps began in 2022 at Adams’ direction as a coordinated effort by the NYPD, the Department of Sanitation, and the city’s social services and homeless services agencies. Adams has long framed the initiative as a way to connect people living outdoors with services while removing makeshift encampments.

Advocates have long argued that the operations traumatize people experiencing homelessness, often involving forced removal and the loss of personal belongings.

A 2023 audit by Comptroller Brad Lander found that more than 2,300 people were cleared from encampments during the first year of the initiative; however, only three were placed into permanent housing, prompting Lander to call for the “sweeping failure” to end.

More recent data show the pattern has continued. Records reviewed by THE CITY show that since 2024, the city has spent more than $6.4 million clearing 4,148 sites, noting that not one person was placed into permanent housing through vouchers, direct placements, or supportive housing. In May, Gothamist reported that of the roughly 3,500 people displaced from encampments, only 114 ultimately entered shelters.

According to the most recent quarterly report from the Department of Homeless Services, the city conducted 956 sweeps between July and September 2024. Sweep teams encountered 2,210 people with no placements into permanent or supportive housing and almost no engagement with transitional housing.

Many sweep locations were marked “previously removed,” indicating repeated clearings of the same sites. Sweep activity spanned dozens of council districts across all boroughs, with the highest concentrations in parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.