With Sweeps of Homeless Encampments, Liberal Cities Wage War on Poorest Residents
New York’s Eric Adams became the latest mayor to clear out the unhoused — a cruel reminder of how the liberal establishment fails the neediest. FROM NEW YORK CITY to Los Angeles , Portland, Oregon , and Washington, D.C. , a growing list of major cities across the country are escalating a brutal war on their poorest denizens. No policy makes this clearer than the recent and aggressive sweeps of homeless encampments nationwide without any serious options for safe long-term shelter, let alone permanent housing. In New York City alone, Mayor Eric Adams in March ordered the clearance of hundreds of homeless encampments; he recently announced that 239 of 244 sites had been removed, primarily in Manhattan. With hardly any notice, dozens and dozens of unhoused people saw their tents, mattresses, and makeshift shelters swept into garbage trucks. The mayor’s claim that these sweeps are about moving individuals into safe shelter was immediately belied by the fact that only five people whose...