New York Mayor Says City Will Dismantle Homeless Encampments Within Two Weeks

New York City will clear the city streets of homeless encampments over the next two weeks, Democratic Mayor Eric Adams announced late last week.

“We’re going to rid the encampments off our street and we’re going to place people in healthy living conditions with wraparound services,” Adams said in an interview with The New York Times published Friday.

“I’m looking to do it within a two weeks’ period,” Adams said of his plan.

The mayor called it “inhumane” to have people living in dangerous environments like cardboard boxes on highways and in the subway.

However, it is not illegal for people to sleep on the street in New York. Adams noted that the city can’t force anyone to sleep in a homeless shelter, “but you can’t build a miniature house made out of cardboard on the streets. That’s inhumane,” he said.

Adams appears to be addressing New Yorkers’ frustration with the makeshift shelters set up by homeless residents that now feel like a permanent fixture on many city streets. The mayor explained that he plans to direct city agencies to do a block by block analysis to identify where encampments are, execute a plan to provide services to the homeless people living there, and then dismantle those encampments.

He also criticized his predecessor Bill de Blasio, saying the former mayor ignored the homeless problem.

About a month ago, Adams also said he will make an effort to remove homeless people from New York’s subway system due to recent violent incidents in subway cars and stations.

“We are not going to wait until someone shoves a person onto the tracks,” Adams said at a news conference in February. “We are going to engage New Yorkers who are unhoused or dealing with mental health crises.”

“People tell me about their fear of using the system, and we are going to ensure that fear is not New York’s reality,” the mayor added. “No more smoking, no more doing drugs, no more sleeping, no more doing barbeques on the subway system—no more just doing whatever you want.”

In January, New York cleared out at least 133 separate homeless encampments, more than half of those in Manhattan. The last estimate done by the city in 2021 said 1,100 people were living on the streets, but recent estimates indicate there are about 50,000 homeless New Yorkers in the city — although that number includes people in shelters.

Several other blue cities which have traditionally been lax about street sleeping have also moved to get rid of encampments in recent months. 

Los Angeles announced a ban on camping in 54 specific locations in October. One Los Angeles mayoral candidate, Democrat Joe Buscaino, campaigned on banning outdoor sleeping in public spaces in most instances.

Portland, Oregon, banned camping on certain roadways in February. However, Portland’s mayor indicated that the city could still allow some massive homeless encampments that would be managed by the city.

Seattle removed multiple encampments at the beginning of this month despite significant backlash from activists. On the East Coast, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser launched a pilot program in 2021 to permanently clear out camps. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ordered a massive encampment cleanup in January.