Mamdani finally sees sense on homeless encampments – Latest News
Letting homeless camps fester is poisonous to metropolis neighborhoods and unsafe for the “campers,” so let’s all cheer Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s resolution to back off his ban on “encampment sweeps.”
And more energy to him if he can certainly have his sweeps end in “better outcomes” than the final mayor’s.
We’re skeptical of that: Mamdani definitely hasn’t rethought the bigger assumptions of New York City’s homeless-industrial complicated; he tapped a core architect of that system, Steven Banks, to run the town’s Law Department.
And his sketch of what’ll be totally different appears skinny: “Whereas previously, a homeless New Yorker might have only two points of interaction with city government, the first day they’re served a notice, and the seventh day when that notice comes to an end, our administration will meet those homeless New Yorkers every single day.”
How the town’s to tug that off — when Mamdani’s (in no way totally funded) preliminary finances plan would add simply 60 outreach staff to the Department of Homeless Services’ 2,000-strong workers — is much from apparent.
But not less than the mayor has retreated from his ban.
We’d prefer to assume that The Post’s common hectoring in each columns and editorials had one thing to do with it, however we had been merely expressing the horror that almost all New Yorkers felt — together with eminently progressive Queens Beep Donovan Richards.
Get opinions and commentary from our columnists
Subscribe to our every day Post Opinion publication!
Thanks for signing up!
For the report: We nonetheless consider the feds ought to examine how the selections obtained made earlier than Mamdani’s reversal, and it’s important to appreciate that leaving people on the road even led to the deaths of some homeless who already had the everlasting shelter that the mayor considers half of the “better outcomes” he means to ship.
Yet the underside line stays the identical: The mayor has put true compassion and easy common sense forward of ideology, drastically disappointing the skilled “advocate” class.
If he does this more typically (cross your fingers!), it’ll be a great trend.
