New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said Thursday he would stop clearing homeless encampments when he takes office in January, ending a longstanding practice by Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.
While answering questions at “Hot Chocolate, Frozen Rent” in Manhattan, Mamdani confirmed he would halt sweeps of homeless encampment sites across the city, marking one of his clearest breaks yet from an Adams policy launched in 2022.
“If you are not connecting homeless New Yorkers to the housing that they so desperately need, then you cannot deem anything you’re doing to be a success,” Mamdani said.
The mayor-elect said his administration’s focus would be securing long-term housing solutions, “whether it’s supportive housing, whether it’s rental housing, whatever kind of housing it is.”
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Mamdani added that homelessness is too often treated “as if it is a natural part of living in the city,” when he believes it reflects “a political choice being made time and time again.”
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander released an audit in 2023 of NYC Department of Homeless Services‘ role in the Adams administration’s sweeps of homeless encampment sites between March and November 2022, finding the initiative “completely failed” to connect homeless New Yorkers with services.
“The evidence is clear: by every measure, the homeless sweeps failed,” New York City Comptroller Brad Lander stated in the audit report.
The audit noted that 2,308 individuals were present during city cleanups and only 119 accepted temporary shelter. A follow-up review found that nearly one-third of cleared encampments saw homeless activity return.
In August, the Adams administration said it had placed more than 3,500 formerly unsheltered New Yorkers in permanent housing.
City officials received more than 45,000 complaints about encampments in 2025, according to data reviewed by the New York Post.
Mamdani’s comments were the latest split with the outgoing mayor, who signed two executive orders Wednesday aimed at countering antisemitism and preventing city funds from supporting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement that Mamdani supports.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Mayor Adams’ office for comment.
