Zohran Mamdani to stop all homeless encampment sweeps as NYC mayor, ending key Adams initiative

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani vowed Thursday to stop clearing homeless encampments throughout the Big Apple — ending a signature initiative pushed by the Adams administration since taking office.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.

“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 of the Adams policy, which has faced criticism for not getting those homeless people into permanent homes after the sweeps.“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.”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.According to 311 data, city officials received more than 45,000 complaints for encampments in the first 11 months of 2025.Adams made clearing out tent cities a top priority after taking office in 2022.“We cannot tolerate these makeshift, unsafe houses on the side of highways, in trees, in front of schools, in parks.

This is just not acceptable, and it’s something I’m just not going to allow to happen,” Adams railed in March of 2022 when he kicked off the initiative.Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.

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