Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing criticism and questions from advocates for homeless New Yorkers after abruptly reversing his policy pledge to end homeless encampment sweeps.
City Hall officials said outreach workers with the Department of Homeless Services would begin notifying street homeless New Yorkers this week of plans to clear them out of public spaces. During a sweep, city sanitation workers often trash tents, makeshift encampments and other belongings if people refuse to pack up and go to a shelter or another location.
Mamdani had called the encampment sweeps done by his predecessors Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio a “failure” because they rarely led to people being placed in permanent housing. He billed the new plan as a kinder, gentler approach to addressing street homelessness, saying the city would conduct daily outreach in the seven days before police and sanitation workers arrived to disperse encampments or makeshift shelters.
But advocates for homeless New Yorkers say Mamdani’s plan is more of the same, and will displace people while moving only a fraction of them into shelters or permanent housing.
“It’s a huge step backwards,” said Josh Goldfein, a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society. “It seems like what’s happening now is the administration is caving to political pressure to say they have to push people out with force rather than approaching them with resources that they need and will accept.”
Mamdani has faced pressure to resume sweeps from business leaders, elected officials and media outlets since he halted the policy days after taking office. Those calls intensified after at least 19 people died outdoors during a recent stretch of cold weather — though it was unclear how many of the people were living in encampments. At least five had permanent housing.
crosspost from https://hexbear.net/post/7702840
This is what happens when you commit to reforming an irreformable system. For Mamdani not to be thrown out of office he has to play ball and do shit like this. That puts him in the awkward spot of defending things he actively campaigned against. This kind of hypocrisy will leave his base of support feeling jaded and demoralized which in turn leaves him without the political leverage he needs to enact progressive policy. All that will be left for him to do is more compromise.
That’s why I think any self described socialist running for office in the US has to be ready to play the role of an intransigent advocate for the disaffected. They have to be that stick in the mud that will not give in even if it means the powers that be try to destroy them. That’s doesn’t mean they have to neglect all the duties of the office or even be much of a firebrand. However, it’s the only way I think you can maintain the trust and enthusiasm of the working class people from whom you derive your power.
Too often I see self described socialists making the mistake of thinking that’s it’s the political office they hold which gives them power. In a political system designed for capitalism the tools at their disposal will almost never suit their purposes as a socialists.
So instead of using sweeps to keep the business class happy and at bay, Mamdani should be at the doorstep of every single real estate investment firm in the city making it readily apparent whose at fault for this humanitarian crisis. He should be highlighting the need for tenants unions, ending sweeps, supporting rent strikes, and ordering moratoriums on evictions until the city or state actually do something to end homelessness. He must be willing to make enemies of the wealthy business elite, the people who are the natural enemies of the working class.
If he can’t do that then it doesn’t matter how sincere he is about being a socialist. He’ll be nothing more than a bump in the road for a system that intends to consume us all.
He’s not a socialist. He doesn’t even appear to be socdem.
Even if he’s being disingenuous or ignorant when self identifying as a socialist, I don’t really care. What matters is that his actions do not align with any realistic path towards socialism.