NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani pressed for solution to homeless encampments. Here's what may happen.
Homeless encampments are still a critical problem in New York City, and it remains to be seen how Mayor Zohran Mamdani will deal with them.
CBS News New York recently discovered a handful of the eyesore encampments, including two on the Upper West Side and two in Hell's Kitchen. Their presence has left many wondering how the new mayor will handle the twin problems of optics that make it look like the city is out of control and finding a humane solution.
"It's time to do something"
Manhattan Councilwoman Gale Brewer told CBS News New York she has been trying for weeks to convince Mamdani's office to find supportive housing for people living among boxes of their possessions in two locations on Broadway between 75th and 76th streets.
"I have multiple emails and people have called 311 over and over again, and it's frustrating," Brewer said. "It's time to do something."
One man who did not want to be identified said he, too, has called 311 repeatedly about the two encampments on West 45th Street.
"They take the call like they're supposed to, but nothing's really happening," he said, adding, "Well, I don't feel good about it because I've been in this neighborhood for three decades and it has gone back to the old-school ways of crime and everything else."
CBS News New York confronts Mayor Mamdani
CBS News New York's Marcia Kramer took the problem to the mayor himself, showing him video of people camped out on the street on a frigid day.
"What is your office going to do about it and is it acceptable given the fact that it's 21 degrees for these people to be there on the street on the Upper West Side and getting no help?" Kramer asked.
"It is not acceptable for a New Yorker to have to find shelter outside, whether on the Upper West Side or anywhere in the city," Mamdani said. "New Yorkers should be able to find a place to call their home, and what I have said consistently, first as a candidate and now as the mayor, is that outcomes are how we judge ourselves."
Mamdani has said he would not follow former Mayor Eric Adams' approach of removing the encampments. He wants to take a softer approach, convincing them to come in from the cold.
Homeless individuals have to want the help, Mayor Mamdani says
Kramer described to Mamdani her encounter with one of the people experiencing homelessness on the Upper West Side.
"I asked him, you know, 'Would you go into supportive housing? Would you?' You know, and he said, 'Sure, I would go into supportive housing if somebody were offering it to me,'" Kramer told the mayor.
"That's why, at the heart of this, [it] has to be the connection with services that they want, that they will use, that they will actually utilize," Mamdani said.
When told of the mayor's take on the situation, Brewer said, "I think it put him on notice that he has to come up with an answer. I've been talking to the deputy mayor every day and she's approaching it in a clinical way. Well, the clinical way is now, now, and she has to find some housing. I hope that's what, thankfully, you did."
