New York Legal Assistance Group Inc.
02/24/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 02/24/2026 16:06
New York Daily News: Opinion: Encampment sweeps add to the woes of homeless
New York Daily News: Opinion: Encampment sweeps add to the woes of homeless
- February 24, 2026
- 4:00 pm
Deborah Berkman, Director of NYLAG's Shelter and Economic Stability Project, wrote about the dangers of homeless "sweeps" for the New York Daily News:
When on day five of his mayoralty Zohran Mamdani acknowledged the inefficacy of homeless sweeps and avowed to end them, street homeless adults, advocates, and attorneys rejoiced. This administration's commitment not to institute sweeps gave people experiencing street homelessness some modest relief that police officers, social service outreach workers, and sanitation workers would no longer sweep their makeshift homes and life's possessions away.
But the Arctic cold snap blew in. And so did the calls to reinstitute Adams-era policies to remove homeless encampments to entice the people who live in them to move inside. Those calls intensified as the temperature precipitously dropped and several people died because of the cold, despite none of the 20 who died lived in an encampment.
Last week, Mamdani announced a plan to reinstitute these sweeps. This is the wrong move.
Read the full op-ed, originally published in the New York Daily News on Feb. 24, 2026.
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New York Legal Assistance Group Inc. published this content on February 24, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on February 24, 2026 at 22:07 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]