Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said Thursday that he will halt the clearing of homeless encampments across New York City, ending a policy that has been a central focus of the Adams administration since 2022.
🚨BREAKING: NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani says he will end the homeless encampment sweeps initiated under the Adams administration. pic.twitter.com/7ttCSypnXA
— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) December 4, 2025
Mamdani made the comments at an unrelated press conference in Manhattan, where he stated that all encampment sweeps will stop when he is sworn in as mayor in the new year.
“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 when asked about the Adams initiative, which has drawn criticism for failing to move the majority of affected individuals into permanent housing. He added that a new strategy is planned for his administration.
“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.”
This Could Be the Most Important Video Gun Owners Watch All Year
Mamdani did not outline any specific plans for how he intends to address widespread complaints regarding the presence of encampments throughout the city.
According to 311 data, more than 45,000 encampment-related complaints were filed in the first eleven months of 2025.
Clearing tent settlements became a major priority for Mayor Eric Adams after he took office in 2022.
Announcing the policy that March, Adams said, “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.”
However, most individuals affected by the sweeps did not transition into permanent housing.
An audit released the following year reported that approximately 95% of those removed from the encampments returned to the streets shortly afterward.
The findings drew attention to the limited long-term impact of the initiative and fueled criticism that the sweeps did not address underlying issues.
The NYC Mayor elected Zohran Mamdani stated he will order the NYPD to stop cleaning up homeless encampments once he takes over
Expect a lot of this once he takes office. https://t.co/WHgIm9jCV5
— Viral News NYC (@ViralNewsNYC) December 5, 2025
City Hall disputed the conclusions of City Comptroller Brad Lander, whose office conducted the audit. In a previous response, City Hall described the initiative as “indisputably successful.”
On Thursday, City Hall spokesperson Fabien Levy reiterated that position.
“Cherry-picking numbers and sharing them out of context paint a disingenuous picture as these cleanups have actually connected more than 500 New Yorkers to safe, stable housing,” Levy said.
Levy added, “New York City continues to have the lowest rate of unsheltered homelessness of any major city in the nation.”
Mamdani’s announcement signals a significant change in approach for the incoming administration.
His comments indicate that his policies will shift focus from dismantling encampments to increasing pathways into various forms of housing, though the details of those plans remain unspecified.
His administration will inherit ongoing concerns from residents, business owners and city officials regarding the prevalence of encampments and the challenges associated with long-term housing solutions.
