City Hall is sidelining the NYPD in responding to New York City’s homeless encampment complaints.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has directed the NYPD not to answer 311 reports involving homeless encampments, leaving the responsibility with the already strained Department of Social Services, according to sources familiar with the policy who spoke with The Post.
Under the new system, police officers must wait for authorization before taking action — and it remains unclear when that approval might come.
“This is just crazy,” one source said. “The cops can’t assist. They have to wait for DSS, and DSS doesn’t have enough personnel to investigate these reports.”
The directive expands Mamdani’s already controversial strategy for dealing with the makeshift encampments that have appeared across New York in recent years. That policy barred the NYPD from removing camps for at least seven days while outreach workers attempted to persuade residents to accept services.
Police had continued answering 311 calls involving encampments, even though officers were generally prevented from clearing the sites during that waiting period. That changed Tuesday, when an email sent to NYPD operations personnel informed them that officers would no longer respond to those complaints, sources said.
The email instructed officers who come across an encampment to report it through 311. From there, staff from DSS and the city Department of Homeless Services would assume responsibility, according to the sources.
“It’s a gray area,” one source said.
Officials with the Mamdani administration confirmed that the process had changed.
“DHS outreach teams, not NYPD officers, will assess the reported location of the encampment and offer shelter and support to any individuals encountered in the area,” a DSS spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that the city is updating DHS tracking systems, improving location mapping and refining its monitoring process so officials can respond more efficiently to encampment conditions throughout New York.
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City officials said the NYPD will continue to participate when formal encampment sweeps are conducted.
Mamdani outlined his more restrained approach to homelessness in late 2024, shortly before taking office, signaling a sharp departure from the policies of his predecessor.
Former Mayor Eric Adams made the removal of tent encampments a central priority after assuming office in 2022.
“We cannot tolerate these makeshift, unsafe houses on the side of highways, in trees, in front of schools or in parks,” Adams said in March 2022 as he launched a more aggressive effort to address homelessness. “This is just not acceptable, and it’s something I’m just not going to allow to happen.”
By contrast, Mamdani adopted a less interventionist posture toward shelters and encampments, even as the number of people experiencing homelessness who died during severe winter weather continued to rise.
Encampments have remained visible across New York over the past year. One sprawling site near the Intrepid Museum on Manhattan’s West Side remained in place until The Post reported on it, prompting the city to move in and begin clearing the area.
Another camp transformed a section beneath the FDR Drive on the East Side into a heavily littered area, while a makeshift outdoor shelter took over part of a sidewalk in Greenwich Village.
This week, a 30-foot-long shelter was discovered across the street from an NYU dormitory.
In several cases, city workers cleared encampments only for the residents to relocate to different sites.
However, the policy prohibited police from removing the shelters for at least seven days.
NYPD also confirmed the policy change.
“Any crime, traffic condition, or public safety issue will continue to be directed to the NYPD via 911,” a spokesperson said.