NYPD removed 27K homeless people from the streets last year — mostly in Manhattan

Police helped remove more than 27,000 homeless people from the street over a nine-month period last year, mostly in Lower Manhattan and Midtown, according to city data. But whether they ended up in shelters, hospitals or just down the block isn’t clear.

The data, which the city released last month under a new law, offers a glimpse into how often police are interacting with homeless people and where. Mayor Eric Adams and his administration have made addressing street homelessness a priority. This month he rolled out a new NYPD unit targeting quality-of-life issues such as panhandling and homeless encampments.

Gothamist reviewed city data between January and September last year showing 42% of people removed were concentrated in one City Council district: an area running from the West Village and SoHo to Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen and Times Square.

The data doesn’t show what happened to each person who was displaced and only lists the time and day a police officer responded to each individual. An NYPD spokesperson said during an interaction, homeless people either accepted shelter, were hospitalized, were “treated and released” or their treatment is unknown. The type of treatment they received was unclear.

Under law, the city is required to release data on how often they are clearing homeless people from public spaces, how many receive shelter or housing and what it costs taxpayers every quarter.

Gothamist previously reported on the city’s so-called homeless encampment sweeps, where several agencies including parks, sanitation, NYPD and homeless services clear tents, cardboard boxes or encampments and offer services to homeless people on site. Just 114 of the 3,500 homeless people displaced by encampment sweeps in nine months last year were moved into shelter. None received permanent housing.

“What we're doing is kind of like a cyclical process,” said Adolfo Abreu, a housing organizer for the grassroots group VOCAL-NY. “You're just moving people, scurrying them around, but not really breaking the cycle of actually saying, ‘let's get you into this spot right now and provide you stability.’”

“The name of the game that they want is out of sight, out of mind,” he added.

But also included in the data was additional information on how often police are interacting with individual homeless people, separate from the sweeps.

It shows police removals happened in every Council district across the five boroughs, with some districts reporting as few as 28 people removed. Though a majority were concentrated in Manhattan, more than 1,000 removals also took place in parts of Bay Ridge, Coney Island, Bushwick, Cypress Hill in the nine-month period.

“There's a lot more calls and pressure on local officials and precincts and other areas that are getting calls about those things because Manhattan is Manhattan and people don't want to see that,” said Councilmember Sandy Nurse, who represents parts of Brooklyn and sponsored legislation requiring the quarterly disclosure of sweeps and homeless removals. Her district had 1,200 removals.

Councilmember Erik Bottcher, who represents the district where more than 11,000 homeless people were removed by police last year, said the city needs to find people other than police to respond to people having mental health crises. He said he’s been calling on the city to expand the B-HEARD pilot program that provides non-police responses to mental health 911 calls.

“B-HEARD sends trained mental health professionals, not police officers, to respond to mental health emergencies — a model that prioritizes care and de-escalation," Botcher said. "Right now, the program operates in 31 precincts across New York City and not a single one in District 3. Our community deserves access to this compassionate, public health-centered approach.”

Maria Walles, a member of the Safety Net Activists, a group of New Yorkers who have experienced homelessness and poverty, said the city is prioritizing tourists and wealthy people over marginalized people.

“The removals are occurring in certain business districts, high frequency tourist areas, and areas experiencing rampant gentrification,” she said, adding that the city should put those resources and money toward helping people obtain housing and services instead.

The encampments removed by police were concentrated in similar areas, with 36% happening in Lower Manhattan and Midtown. The data only lists sweeps by council district, not address.

Six homeless New Yorkers and the Urban Justice Center’s Safety Net Project sued the Adams administration in federal court over homeless sweeps in October, alleging the sweeps violated people’s due process and protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The suit seeks to end the practice. A judge said the city had to give at least seven days' notice before a location is swept and provide a list of locations to the advocacy group suing them.

Adams has defended encampment sweeps and said it can take a few tries to get someone who's been living on the street for many months or years to accept shelter.

“There's no dignity in living on the streets. And I'm going to continue to push back on anyone that believes the philosophy that people should live on the streets,” he said earlier this month in response to a question from Gothamist.

“We are leaning into the hard work, and it's not easy," he said. "Trust me, folks, it's not easy.”

In areas that were subject to repeat sweeps, business owners have supported a heavier police presence and said having people sleep outside their stores slows foot traffic and stops customers from coming inside.

Last week, homeless advocates protested outside City Hall against encampment sweeps, police removals and the new NYPD quality-of-life program.

“ I've seen firsthand the traumatic impact that having police respond, having police force people off the trains, having police sweep encampments has on folks like me,” said Noam Cohen, a member of VOCAL-NY, who used to live on the street but now lives in a shelter.

This story has been updated with a statement from Councilmember Erik Bottcher.