From Housing Court to City Policy, a Formerly Homeless New Yorker Explains What’s at Stake
I type this from my teeny tiny one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment, which is not subsidized but considered “affordable” at $1,600 a month. My landlord could easily rent this apartment for significantly more. And that’s a problem – for me, for my neighbors, and for an out-of-control housing and homelessness crisis.
I know, because it wasn’t that long ago that I was homeless. I’ve been to a housing court in New York City, where you stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the back of a courtroom, waiting for the judge to process through the hundreds of evictions. I’ve rented from the corporate landlord who raised my rent, then terrorized me to get me out of there so he could jack up the rent even more for another tenant. I saw it happen to hundreds of people, right in front of me, over and over again.
You know what else I’ve seen? A lot of “solutions” to this crisis that fail to address its real cause. These approaches don’t prevent homelessness — they just make it less visible. Instead of investment in affordable, accessible housing, policymakers have focused solely on mental illness, public safety, and “cleaning up the streets” of homelessness. Instead of homeless prevention, we see tens of thousands of families with children enter the shelter system, only to get stuck there for years, because there is no affordable housing available.
Worst yet, we’ve seen thousands of homeless sweeps. While evidence shows that sweeps are a waste of money, cause significant trauma, and do little to reduce crime, former New York City Mayor Eric Adams spent millions of dollars since 2024 on breaking up homeless encampments.
Adams urged the NYPD, the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), and Parks and Sanitation to work together. As a result, the city conducted thousands of encampment sweeps. The outcome was stark: not a single person was placed into permanent housing through vouchers, direct placements, or transfers into supportive housing. Additionally, in May, the city’s data shows that almost 3,500 people were displaced by homeless encampment sweeps, while only 114 were transferred into shelters.
A Campaign Pledge — and Immediate Pushback
During his mayoral campaign, Zohran Mamdani pledged to end homeless sweeps. So far, he has had little support from Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul on his plans.
“The governor does not believe that allowing New Yorkers to sleep on sidewalks or under bridges is a humane solution to homelessness,” a spokesperson for Governor Hochul said last month. “She supports an approach that combines enforcement – including sweeps when needed – with connection to supportive housing and mental health and substance abuse services.”
Adams shares a similar view, claiming that “enforcement” is the “humane solution”. In Adam’s mayoral exit interview, he said the city of New York can’t allow homeless encampments to “take over” the city.
Mamdani’s Proposed Department of Community Safety
Mamdani seeks to move the NYPD away from a lead role in interactions with homeless encampments. For people who have lived through sweeps, this distinction matters.
“We are going to take an approach that understands its mission is connecting those New Yorkers to housing, whether it’s supportive housing, whether it’s rental housing, whatever kind of housing it is,” Mamdani said. “What we have seen is the treatment of homelessness as if it is a natural part of living in this city, when in fact it’s more often a reflection of a political choice being made time and time again.”
While pulling away from police involvement, Mamdani also seeks to create a response team of specialists that will help New Yorkers navigate their housing options. He also wants to turn vacant MTA commercial spaces into medical services and outreach sites for those sleeping rough in NYC subway stations. According to Gothamist, Mamdani plans to survey all crisis programs and grow those that rely on people with lived experience of substance use or homelessness to conduct outreach.
Back in November, Invisible People covered the NYC Subway Outreach Team and the challenges that come with street outreach. Experts in street outreach from BronxWorks said that police presence complicates building trust with those they are trying to help, especially for those who have previously experienced sweeps, been arrested, or been forced to relocate.
Organizations like BronxWorks intentionally avoid pairing outreach workers with police during engagements. Instead, their teams include Peer Specialists—people with lived experience of homelessness who can connect more directly with those they serve.
The Homelessness Crisis in NYC is Much Bigger Than This
New York saw a 53% spike in homelessness last year. While asylum-seeking immigrants contribute to that increase, homelessness in NYC has always been an issue of affordable housing.
As previously stated, the conversation surrounding homelessness in NYC has been dominated by discussions of mental illness, public safety, and street homelessness lately. While these areas do require urgency and attention, this limited framing distorts the public narrative. It leaves little room to address other pressing realities, including the rapid rise in family and child homelessness. Today, the majority of the city’s homeless population is families with children.
As of October, 20,280 families were sleeping in NYC shelters. Those families include 31,273 children and 31,811 adults, part of a total shelter population of 89,957 people. The remaining 26,873 were adults in single-adult shelters.
Of course, these numbers do not include people who are doubled up, couch-surfing, or temporarily staying with a friend while trying to get back on their feet.
In reality, over 350,000 people in NYC are without a permanent, secure place to live tonight. While a few thousand people are sleeping on streets, in cars, in parks, in encampments, or in underground transit facilities, hundreds of thousands more remain largely invisible and without a home.
This crisis is not only about mental illness or crime in the subway system. It is about the growing number of people who cannot afford to live here.
Mamdani Takes Office Amid Steep Political and Federal Challenges
Mamdani vows to freeze the rent for 1 million rent-stabilized apartment units, which currently provide housing to 2.5 million New Yorkers—nearly 30% of the city’s population. However, to do this, he would need to get approval from the city’s Rent Guidelines Board (RGB).
According to the New York Post, Adams was “planning to replace six members of the board before Mamdani takes office, potentially limiting his ability to pack the board with members who would embrace his rent-free plan.”
But the obstacles aren’t only local. In addition to political pressure and criticism from Adams and Governor Hochul to continue homeless sweeps, Mamdani will face many more challenges.
Back in July, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that pushes for encampment sweeps. A shift away from criminalization won’t align with the federal funding requirements expected from the Trump administration.
In November, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a notice that will govern more than $3.9 billion in Continuum of Care funds, the primary federal source of funding for homelessness. While this is being litigated in court, HUD’s changes reward enforcement-oriented criteria in exchange for federal funding, rather than Housing First.
Did Mamdani foresee these policy obstacles prior to his campaign pledges? Voters deserve to hear how he will overcome the growing roadblocks to his proposals, especially after such a successful campaign with overwhelming support.
A Message to Zohran Mamdani from a Formerly Homeless New Yorker
As someone who fought a multi-million-dollar corporate landlord in housing court, who walked through the city’s shelter system and made it out on the other side to fight for people like me, I put my faith in you.