Homeless New Yorkers Sue Eric Adams Administration to End Inhumane and Unlawful Sweeps

"NEW YORK, NEW YORK – (October 30th, 2024)

Yesterday, six homeless New Yorkers filed a lawsuit against the City of New York and the Adams administration to end the City’s inhumane and unlawful homeless sweeps. The lawsuit alleges that both the City’s sweeps policy and the practices that follow are unconstitutional and violate individuals’ civil rights. The plaintiffs are represented by the Urban Justice Center – Safety Net Project (UJC-SNP), the National Homelessness Law Center (NHLC), and Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP.  

New York City conducts more than 4,000 homeless sweeps a year, none of which address the root cause of homelessness: the lack of safe, decent, affordable housing. Instead of focusing on proven solutions to homelessness, the Adams administration continues to double down on expensive, traumatic, and ineffective sweeps that only make homelessness worse. Instead of working to house homeless people, the City has invested massive fiscal and other resources into policing and harassment, disproportionately affecting the city’s Black and Brown homeless residents.

According to Siya Hegde, a Staff Attorney at the National Homelessness Law Center and co-counsel representing the plaintiffs in this case, “The damaging effects of the sweeps policy represent an abject failure of New York City governance and exacerbate the trend of criminalizing homelessness that has been escalating across the country. Since the Supreme Court effectively criminalized homelessness this summer with the Johnson v. Grants Pass ruling, more than one hundred bills cruelly targeting homeless people have been introduced across the country. The billionaire-led campaign to arrest, fine, and displace homeless people must be met with increased funding for the proven solution to homelessness: housing paired with voluntary services.” 

We need housing, not handcuffs, and services, not sweeps."

Read the full statement from the National Homelessness Law Center here: Homeless New Yorkers Sue Eric Adams Administration to End Inhumane and Unlawful Sweeps - National Homelessness Law Center

Read more about the lawsuit here: Homeless People Sue New York City for Throwing Away Their Property - The New York Times