Mamdani names social services chief amid scrutiny over deaths of homeless New Yorkers

Zohran Mamdani, New York’s mayor, has hired Erin Dalton as a new commissioner of the city’s department of social services.The hire comes as the new mayor has faced scrutiny over the city’s handling of its unhoused population following the deaths of at least 20 people who were found outdoors during an especially cold winter.Dalton had previously directed the Allegheny county department of human services in the Pittsburgh area. The previous commissioner, Molly Wasow Park, was appointed by Eric Adams in 2023 and resigned earlier this month.“Erin Dalton has spent decades proving that government can and must work better for people who rely on it most,” Mamdani stated in a news release. “She has expanded access to housing, strengthened social services and protected our most vulnerable neighbors.”Advocates for the homeless population have criticized Mamdani for reinstituting sweeps of encampments after pausing the practice on his fifth day in office.The Coalition for the Homeless also criticized for Mamdani for deciding not to expand CityFHEPS, a rental assistance program, after pledging to do so during his campaign.“I was very disappointed to see the mayor backpedaling” on those promises, said David Giffen, executive director of the Coalition. “The sweeps do not do anything to address unsheltered homelessness in the city.”But the mayor said that under the new policy, the department of homeless services, rather than the police, would conduct the sweeps.“The model that Mayor Mamdani is going to be using is better than the one that Mayor Adams was using, which was really based on criminalizing people for being homeless,” Giffen said. “But unless people who are sleeping outside are being connected with what they need, all it’s doing is making life much more difficult for them.”Dalton, who spent 18 years with Allegheny county, wrote an opinion piece in September 2025 for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in which she touted that a year earlier there had been nearly 150 tents in its riverfronts and downtown.But now, there will only a “handful, usually only for a day or two”, she stated.The city and county accomplished that reduction through outreach teams “walking alongside them, making sure people knew where shelter and housing was available, making sure they understood an encampment would be closing, and making sure no one was caught by surprise”, Dalton wrote.Giffen said the coalition was “looking forward” to working with the new commissioner.“We’re excited to see how the mayor is going to make good on his promise to address mass homelessness in New York City with more permanent housing for the people who need it,” Giffen said.