Overview
- Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said he will stop routine NYPD encampment sweeps and instead offer guaranteed indoor options while working to make shelters safer and more appealing.
- Mamdani met with real estate and finance leaders to cut red tape and move people into apartments faster, pointing to a 252-day average to fill an affordable unit and reiterating support for a rent freeze on stabilized homes.
- City Hall and Gov. Kathy Hochul rejected ending enforcement, with Hochul backing a mixed approach that can include sweeps and Mayor Eric Adams blasting Mamdani’s stance as inhumane.
- Mamdani argued sweeps yielded no permanent housing placements over a year; Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy called that false, citing 9,000 moved from subways to shelters, over 4,000 housed from streets, and more than 120 taken from encampments into shelter, as an outside report found no encampment-specific permanent referrals.
- The roundtable was arranged by Kathy Wylde, Steven Fulop and Emma Pfohman, with attendees including Tishman Speyer’s Rob Speyer and former Blackstone president Hamilton James, and Mamdani later met with homeless advocates for implementation ideas.