By The New York Post Editorial Board
New York City spends a small fortune on the homeless.
Mayor Mamdani’s latest budget includes, for instance, a $1.9 billion “emergency” hotel shelter contract.
The Department of Homeless Services estimates it will spend an astounding $97,000 per street homeless person in the next fiscal year.
If taxpayers are going to shell out that much money, we need — nay, deserve — something in return.
And that something is streets free of homeless encampments.
If the city is going to have a “right to shelter,” then there should be a covenant that the mentally ill and substance addicts must take that shelter.
That’s the deal.
Otherwise it’s just a waste of our money.
Instead, Mamdani is taking our cash while also blocking a cleanup of Manhattan’s west side, where encampments have now spread across blocks.
Progressives seem incapable of taking to heart the lessons that New York City has learned again and again.
Take, for instance, Mamdani boasting on July 2 that the city had its “safest start to any year on record.”
This didn’t magically happen because Mamdani was elected.
It happened because of a righteous backlash to the idiocy of “defund the police.”
It happened because Jessica Tisch rebuilt the NYPD and shoplifting was made a crime again.
It happened because Rikers Island, which was emptied to 3,809 prisoners in 2020, filled back up to 6,550, taking the worst of the worst off the streets.
This is obvious to everyone but our socialist leaders, just as it’s obvious that the “broken windows” philosophy makes a safer, more welcoming city for everyone.
Allowed to fester, encampments will spread.
They will scare away tourists.
They will push away families.
They will increase crime and chaos on the streets.
We know because it’s happened before.
Mayor Mamdani, don’t let it happen again.
Mayor Mamdani: Tear down this sprawl! https://t.co/wTBSF7waoG pic.twitter.com/NacFzv9s3e
— NY Post Opinion (@NYPostOpinion) July 14, 2026
