Overview
- Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said the sweep operations will stop when he takes office on Jan. 1, refocusing street outreach on connecting people to housing.
- City data and a 2023 comptroller audit cited in coverage report millions spent and thousands of sweeps with negligible permanent housing outcomes, including only three placements among more than 2,300 people reviewed.
- NYPD figures obtained by CBS show 3,676 encampments visited this year with 2,046 cleared, yielding just 117 housing placements, and 513 placements since the sweeps began in March 2022.
- City Hall counters that critics cherry-pick statistics and says the cleanups have connected more than 500 New Yorkers to safe, stable housing.
- Opposition mounted as Mayor Eric Adams called the rollback a “quality-of-life nightmare” and former NYPD Chief John Chell warned the change is a gamble without added housing and treatment capacity, with more than 45,000 encampment complaints logged in 2025.