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Head of NYC's homeless services resigns amid weeks of job uncertainty under Mamdani
By
Karen Yi
Published Feb 9, 2026
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Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.
By
Karen Yi
Published Feb 9, 2026
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The head of New York City’s homeless services and public benefits programs has submitted her resignation to the Mamdani administration, Gothamist has learned.
Department of Social Services Commissioner Molly Wasow Park, who was appointed by former Mayor Eric Adams in 2023, confirmed she tendered her resignation in a letter on Monday morning. Her resignation comes amid frigid temperatures that have lingered over the region since last month; 18 people have been found dead outside in the cold since Jan. 24, leaving questions about whether the Mamdani administration did enough to get people indoors.
The Mamdani administration had given no public indication on whether it planned to keep her in the post. Park said she’s still determining when her last day will be.
“This limbo has been really taxing on the agency, on me and my family. I really think [the Department of Social Services] deserves and needs a permanent leader. So this is the right time,” Park told Gothamist.
Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec said the mayor appreciated Park’s service to the city and “looks forward to working with her through this transitional period.”
Park, 51, who oversees the city’s sprawling portfolio of homeless shelters, street outreach and cash assistance and food aid programs, took the helm as the city was grappling with an unprecedented number of asylum seekers and a record number of cash assistance and SNAP applications prompted by the long-term effects of the pandemic.
Park issued her resignation a day before the City Council will hold a hearing on the Mamdani administration’s response to the artic temperatures. Park, who said she would testify at the hearing, commended the workers conducting 24/7 outreach to get people safely indoors.
“It is probably, in my mind, the hardest job in New York City because they are out in every condition and dealing with people who don't really want to deal with them,” she said.
During her nearly three-year tenure at the Department of Social Services, Park expanded the number of Safe Haven and stabilization beds as an alternative for homeless people living on the street. Those beds serve people who might have had negative experiences with traditional homeless shelters which have tighter rules and curfews. Last year, the Department of Homeless Services — which falls under the social services department —helped move 1,200 people from these beds into permanent housing.
The city also began issuing more rental assistance vouchers than ever before. Now more than 65,000 households use the city-funded rental aid program, known as cityFHEPS, which has ballooned into one of the nation’s largest housing assistance programs. More than 37,500 New Yorkers used housing vouchers, overwhelmingly cityFHEPS, to exit shelter and move into housing in fiscal year 2025 — the most in two decades.
But under Park, the Department of Social Services was also criticized for its record-slow processing times for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program and cash assistance cases that delayed benefits for New Yorkers. The city was sued over the delay. Park said she inherited the lawsuit and ongoing delays but said she worked to clear the backlog.
A longtime public servant, Park previously served as the first deputy commissioner for the Department of Homeless Services and the deputy commissioner for development at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
As part of her legacy, Park shaped the Department of Social Services to focus on housing. She ramped up programs to encourage nonprofits to own their own homeless shelters by leveraging city dollars to unlock private financing and also incentivized nonprofit developers to build affordable housing through the Affordable Housing Service program.
“ DSS offers a really amazing suite of services and benefits, I do think housing is really the foundation that a lot of that rests on,” she said.
In the coming months, the Department of Social Services is poised to absorb a large chunk of federal spending cuts from the Trump administration, including to its SNAP program, that helps 1.8 million New Yorkers afford groceries.
Its street outreach services are also facing increasing scrutiny as city council members and business leaders await word on how the nascent administration will tackle encampments. The city’s latest numbers show about 4,500 New Yorkers are sleeping on the street, an increase from years prior. That’s about 3% of all homeless New Yorkers, the least of any major city.
This story has been updated with a comment from City Hall.
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Politics
homelessness
new york city
Karen Yi
Karen Yi covers homelessness and poverty. She joined the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom in 2020. Before that, Karen covered Newark for the Star-Ledger and spent almost a decade working for newspapers in New Jersey and Florida. She grew up in Miami and has a dog named Cashew. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-589-1460.
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