A sprawling homeless encampment stretching across Manhattan’s West Side is drawing mounting criticism as opponents accuse Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new homeless policy of preventing police from taking swift action, leaving a deteriorating situation to worsen near one of the city’s busiest tourist destinations.
Under the administration’s revised approach, the NYPD is barred from clearing homeless encampments until civilian outreach workers and homeless advocates have spent seven days attempting to persuade those living there to accept services and shelter. According to sources, that seven-day countdown only began Tuesday despite residents complaining about the encampment for weeks.
Residents said city outreach teams did not arrive at the site until approximately 3 p.m. Tuesday.
Public safety experts warned that the rapidly expanding encampment bears troubling similarities to New York City’s troubled decades of the 1980s and early 1990s.
“The mayor is too young to remember the eighties and early nineties and what a mess New York was,” former NYPD Commissioner William Bratton told The NY Post. “Those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it. It all began with non-enforcement of quality-of-life offenses.
“Remember the squeegee men at every entrance to the city?” Bratton said. “Remember the rampant …. graffiti? Remember the 8,000 open air drug selling locations? Remember the rampant subway fare evasion? I remember, and it’s happening again.”
The NY Post first highlighted the encampment Friday, though neighborhood residents said tents and makeshift shelters have lined the area for several weeks. They also alleged that panhandlers have been harassing visitors while drug dealing and theft have become common in broad daylight.
By Tuesday, some of those living in the encampment had reportedly connected illegal electrical lines to nearby city utility poles in order to obtain power.
“In just half a year, Mayor Mamdani’s policies have managed to turn the West Side into Skid Row,” City Councilwoman Joann Ariola, R-Queens, told The Post Tuesday.
“The administration is repeating the same ridiculous hands-off approach to the homeless that destroyed LA and San Francisco, and now we have a 12-block homeless campsite in Manhattan.
“Way to go DSA,” she added, referring to the Democratic Socialists of America, the lefty group that counts Mamdani as a member.
Soon after taking office, Mamdani reversed former Mayor Eric Adams’ policy that empowered police to aggressively dismantle homeless encampments and remove individuals considered to be at risk from city streets.
In its place, the administration adopted what it describes as a larger, more humane strategy centered on a housing-first model. Under the plan, the Department of Community Safety relies on civilian outreach teams and social workers, rather than police officers, to connect homeless individuals with housing and support services.
The policy requires those outreach teams to spend seven days engaging with people living in an encampment before police are permitted to remove it.
The NYPD, whose role in homeless enforcement had already been reduced during the de Blasio administration, now has even less authority under Mamdani’s policy. Officers may intervene only when criminal activity, emergencies, or the protection of city workers requires their presence.
“The Mamdani Administration has stopped the failed encampment sweep policies of the past and moving forward will connect New Yorkers to the resources they need to thrive and to build a New York where everyone has a safe, affordable place to call home,” the city sanitation department said in a statement.
A City Hall spokesperson also told The NY Post on Tuesday, “This site will be cleaned.”
Brian Stettin, who served as a senior adviser on severe mental illness during the Adams administration, said the concept behind the policy may be reasonable, provided city officials move quickly.
“It’s perfectly reasonable to spend a week attempting a voluntary resolution before dismantling an encampment,” Stettin said. “But people will quickly lose faith in that policy if they see the city dragging its feet. The 7-day clock should start as soon as DHS confirms the presence of an encampment.”
Critics argue that the administration has failed to act with the urgency the situation demands.
“This is embarrassing and a big black eye on the city, especially with FIFA tourists,” one veteran cop griped. “The Intrepid is a big tourist attraction, and what are people from all over the world thinking when they walk by this encampment?”
During patrols Tuesday, police instructed occupants of two encampments to disconnect unauthorized electrical hookups from city utility poles. According to reports, however, the illegal connections are often restored once officers leave the area.
Mamdani addressed the controversy publicly on Monday but emphasized his administration’s broader strategy rather than immediate enforcement.
“We are focused on connecting New Yorkers to shelter and on establishing a pipeline to stable housing, not just moving New Yorkers from one place to another place,” he said. “To this specific encampment that you brought up, we’re going to look into the details of that.”
{Matzav.com}
