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NYC Comptroller: Mayor Adams’ homeless sweeps were a 'policy failure'
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Jun 28, 2023
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Reece T. Williams/Gothamist
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Jun 28, 2023
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Only 5% of people removed from homeless encampments by the Adams administration last year accepted temporary shelter, according to an audit released on Wednesday by the city comptroller’s office — and only three people secured permanent housing since the policy was first enacted.
The audit, which investigated data reported by the Department of Homeless Services, said the department had “limited success” in convincing homeless individuals to seek shelter. It also pointed to DHS’ inability to track data regarding the results of encampment sweeps. Comptroller Brad Lander said that of the 2,308 homeless people who were forcibly removed from their encampments between March and November of 2022, 99.9% remained homeless.
“By every measure, the homeless sweeps failed,” Lander said during a press conference at Tompkins Square Park on Wednesday.
In March 2022, Mayor Eric Adams announced a new policy that created a task force among four city agencies — DHS, the NYPD, the Department of Sanitation, and the Department of Parks and Recreation — to dismantle and remove homeless encampment sites across the city.
The policy aimed to then provide individuals with access to housing and other services. Since it was put in place, there have been more than 200 sweeps, according to Lander’s office.
The city defines an encampment as a public location where one or more homeless people live in an unsheltered area.
In response to the audit, City Hall said the comptroller focused too heavily on the work of DHS and did not investigate work done by other agencies, such as the NYPD, in the encampment sweep task force.
“Despite the inherent difficulty of this work, our efforts have been indisputably successful,” said Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for the mayor. “In the first year of this initiative, New Yorkers experiencing unsheltered homelessness accepted services at six times the rate they did under the previous administration’s approach.”
The audit found that of 99 homeless encampments swept by the city, 31% appeared to be re-established.
The comptroller's office also said DHS’ tracking of results from “cleanups” were incomplete and inaccurate. The audit said activity like outreach with homeless individuals wasn’t recorded, nor was data of exit and re-entries from shelters; DHS only tracked shelter referrals.
Lander, alongside local housing advocates, suggested a housing-first policy that he said would better address the issue of encampments around the city.
Levy said that a “Street-to-Housing” pilot program was already launched last year, where around 80 homeless New Yorkers have been given apartment housing — numbers not accounted for in Lander's audit.
A policy proposal from the comptroller’s office highlighted case studies in Denver and Philadelphia examining the effectiveness of subsidized permanent housing for homeless individuals and those with repeated arrests. The findings revealed that after two to three years of being provided housing, between 70% and 90% of participants were able to maintain stable housing.
Although a small sample size was reported in the case studies, Lander said that expanding the policy could have legs in New York City.
Lander outlined three recommendations: “First, end the sweeps. They’re counterproductive … second, scale up safe havens and stabilization beds,” and “third, establish a large-scale, housing-first program.”
Dave Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, said after interviewing hundreds of homeless people, a majority don’t want to be sleeping on the streets.
“What people want is the safety and dignity of permanent housing,” said Giffen. “It’s time to stop criminalizing people for their housing status and trying to sweep things out of sight.”
Tagged
Politics
social services
homeless
Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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