New York City Democratic Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani vowed to avoid cleaning up homeless encampments, prompting Republican New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov to rebuke the policy.
Mamdani said on Dec. 4 that he would not remove the encampments, instead claiming that he would connect the homeless with housing resources.
“If you are not connecting homeless New Yorkers to the housing that they so desperately need, then you cannot deem anything you’re doing to be a success,” Mamdani said.
“We are going to take an approach that understands its mission is connecting those New Yorkers to housing, whether it’s supportive housing, whether it’s rental housing, whatever kind of housing it is,” he added.
“Because what we have seen is the treatment of homelessness as if it is a natural part of living in this city, when in fact it’s more often a reflection of a political choice being made time and time again.”
Vernikov contended on social media platform X that while Mamdani floated a seemingly compassionate policy, the result would be homeless people suffering without badly needed care.
“The radical left communists would rather the homeless freeze to death on the streets, live in tents without showers food or medicine than make sure they have PROPER housing and mental health treatment which many of them desperately need,” she wrote.
The radical left communists would rather the homeless freeze to death on the streets, live in tents without showers food or medicine than make sure they have PROPER housing and mental health treatment which many of them desperately need. After all, most Mamdani voters are rich… https://t.co/BTkG5mZ3Gp
— Councilwoman Inna Vernikov (@InnaVernikov) December 4, 2025
Vernikov asserted that many Mamdani voters are disconnected from the reality of homelessness, or that letting the homeless do as they please is part of their broader guilt-driven social justice project.
“After all, most Mamdani voters are rich entitled liberals who never have to struggle and who believe that leaving the homeless on our streets in their tents is also appropriate PUNISHMENT for our ‘intolerant and racist’ neighborhoods,” she continued.
Vernikov closed with the warning, “BRACE YOURSELVES.”
Zohran Mamdani was given multiple chances to walk back his language that he wanted to tax Whiter neighborhoods at a higher rate but he refused to walk it back. He wants higher taxes for affluent Whites. As I’ve said, he’s a communist.pic.twitter.com/yvsnHavzaS
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) October 15, 2025
New York City had a 53 percent spike in homelessness last year after massive numbers of illegal aliens poured into the Big Apple, per a report from the New York Post.
There were 158,000 homeless people in New York as of 2024.
In other words, New York City has a substantial homelessness problem that the government is unlikely to quickly resolve.
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