Mayor Mamdani Orders NYPD to Sit Out Homeless Encampment 311 Calls

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is barring New York Police Department officers from responding to 311 complaints involving homeless encampments, according to sources close to the issue who spoke with The Post.

The change places responsibility for those complaints on the understaffed and overworked Department of Social Services.

Under the new approach, officers must wait for authorization before assisting with an encampment report, the sources said.

That approval may never come if social services employees lack the staff needed to investigate.

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“This is just crazy,” one source said. “[Cops] can’t help. They just have to wait for DSS … DSS doesn’t have the staff to investigate this.”

The City Hall directive expands Mamdani’s already controversial response to the encampments that have appeared across New York City.

His policy prohibited police from clearing the makeshift shelters for at least seven days while outreach workers attempted to persuade their occupants to leave.

Police officers had continued responding to 311 complaints despite being prevented from removing the encampments during that period.

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That changed Tuesday, when an email sent to all NYPD operations said officers would no longer respond to those calls, according to the sources.

Officers who personally discover an encampment are now instructed to call 311 themselves, according to the email.

Department of Social Services and Department of Homeless Services employees are then responsible for handling the report.

Officials in the Mamdani administration confirmed the shift and described the new division of responsibility between police and city outreach employees.

“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 Department of Social Services spokesperson said.

The administration also said it plans to improve how the city tracks encampments after reports are filed.

“In conjunction with this with this process change, we are updating DHS tracking systems to improve our ability to monitor encampments and improving geocoding and tracking so we are able to more efficiently respond to encampment conditions across the city.”

Police will remain involved when the city conducts encampment sweeps, according to officials.

A spokesperson also said, “Any crime, traffic condition, or public safety issue will continue to be directed to the NYPD via 911.”

Mamdani announced his intention to use a gentler approach toward the homeless crisis in late 2025, shortly before taking office.

His policy sharply differed from that of his predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams.

Adams made clearing tent cities a priority after taking office in 2022.

“We cannot tolerate these makeshift, unsafe houses on the side of highways, in trees, in front of schools, in parks. This is just not acceptable, and it’s something I’m just not going to allow to happen,” Adams said in March 2022 when launching his tougher initiative.

Mamdani instead adopted a hands-off approach toward homeless shelters and encampments. That approach continued even as harsh winter conditions claimed the lives of homeless people, according to the source account.

Encampments have appeared around the city during the past year, including a sprawling site near the Intrepid Museum on Manhattan’s West Side.

The block-long encampment remained until The Post publicized it, after which the city moved in and attempted to clear the area.

Another encampment turned an East Side stretch beneath the FDR Drive into a trash-covered site.

An outdoor sleeping area also took over a sidewalk in Greenwich Village, while a 30-foot-long shelter was spotted this week across from an NYU dorm.

City officials eventually cleared several encampments, but their occupants moved to other locations. Even where police participate in a sweep, the policy prevents officers from removing shelters for at least seven days after the process begins.

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