Mamdani plan marks a break from Adams on how to tackle homelessness

Mayor Zohran Mamdani's plan for combatting homelessness strays away from prior administrations' attempts to curb the crisis but could also expand one program the previous mayor created.

Here's how the plan differs, and mirrors, his predecessor.

Mamdani's plan on homelessness

The mayor's housing plan, titled Block by Block, aims to add 200,000 new affordable homes over the next decade, a major campaign promise for the Democratic-Socialist during his mayoral run last year. He continues to support freezing rent costs.

Mamdani is also focusd on "preventing housing loss before it occurs," according to his policy. Over $55 million is set aside in the executive budget to increase "Right to Counsel” programs and anti-harassment services beginning in fiscal year 2028. His office says strengthening Homebase, a homelessness prevention program, is important although the plan doesn't explain how the city will do that.

Peer and Housing Navigator services for homeless youth will collect a $3.2 million budget for fiscal year 2027 in hopes of keeping residents out of shelters and propping up housing stability.

"The administration will focus on reducing vacancies in supportive housing and homeless set-aside units, accelerating placements into available units, and shortening the time it takes for households to move from shelter to permanent housing," the plan says.

The new mayor will also try to keep and expand Bridge to Home, a transitional housing program introduced by former Mayor Eric Adams last year. The last administration described it as "a supportive, home-like environment to patients with serious mental illness who are ready for discharge from the hospital but do not have a place to go." In September 2026, a new location is slated to open.

James Whelan, the president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said that they were reviewing the new plan put forth by Mamdani, but some of the strategies had already raised questions.

"At a time when we need to build as much housing as possible, we question why the City would choose to make projects more expensive to build and finance through the addition of costly and inflexible project labor agreements," Whelan said in a statement.

Labor agreements set uniform working conditions and standards for all contractors on a given project. Supporters argue the agreements open work opportunities for more businesses and critics say they deals drive up costs.

The REB also argues Mamdani's pitch to freeze rent would be damaging.

"With operating costs rising and conditions worsening across older, majority rent stabilized buildings, a freeze or near-freeze is unjustifiable," Basha Gerhards, the executive vice president of public policy at the REBNY, said in a statement earlier this month.

Eric Adams' homelessness policies

During his administration and while running for office again, Adams had supported involuntary hospitalizations.

He also added more beds to Safe Haven shelters, deployed more police presence to transit hubs and started the Bridge to Home program that Mamdani now wants to expand.

A New York City Council policy brief from last year questioned Adams' use of involuntarily admissions.

"here remains a lack of clear data about the practice’s effectiveness as a solution to improve mental health outcomes," the brief said at the time.

"The Mayor has focused on using these practices to remove individuals from the subway and other public spaces, but the majority of removals are occurring from private homes, as noted above."

During his campaign, Mamdani told the New York Times the city "will build a whole-of-government approach to mental health, housing and substance use services."

“The goal of this approach will be to ensure that involuntary hospitalization — which often fails to put people on a path to recovery — is rare and a last resort."