Homelessness in NYC has reached its highest level since the Great Depression in recent years, according to Coalition for the Homeless.
During Mamdani's run for mayor of NYC, he promised to fix the homelessness issue in the city with his plan called "Block by Block: The Housing Plan for a New Era." According to Fox 5 New York, the plan aims to build 200,000 new affordable homes and preserve another 200,000 existing homes over the next decade.
Along with building homes, the proposal would double the size of a city program that helps people “finance affordable co-ops and condos.” He will also start a new initiative “to create permanently affordable co-op housing for working-class New Yorkers.”
But how are these policies helping the thousands of people in the city that face homelessness?
As of May 2026, it is estimated that 350,000 people do not have a home. Over 96,000 people sleep in NYC shelters, with thousands more sleeping in public spaces or doubling up in others’ homes.
Johnny Belisario on Fox News’ Jesse Watters took to the streets of a homeless encampment to see what has changed since Mamdani took office. He was met with some aggression from the homeless population, but also some people who were just curled up under a blanket and sleeping on public benches.
Belisario: "Do you know that you can't be sleeping here?"
Sleeper: "Yeah, I know."
Belisario: "So why are you doing it?"
Sleeper: "I like sleeping here."
Others were too terrified to even attempt sleeping on the streets.
Homeless Man: "I try not to sleep. Otherwise, I might accidentally be killed or something."
Some of the city's homeless are simply content.
Belisario also found some people with access to electricity to run fans and others doing laundry using water from a fire hydrant. He noted that the people he came across seemed perfectly content with their situation.
“Right inside this encampment there's beds. You see umbrellas and tarps. People are sleeping in there. They don't want a job. They don't want to go inside. This is where they like to live. It's bigger than some studio apartments here in New York City,” Belisario says.
He found several closed businesses, who say that it's just not worth doing business on 12th Avenue anymore.
