Mayor Mamdani must immediately reverse his policy of allowing homeless encampments to proliferate on the streets of NYC. Fourteen New Yorkers have already died on the streets amid record-breaking cold, and the encampment sweeps initiated by Mayor Adams could well prove a critical tool in averting any more needless fatalities.

With some questions still unanswered about how the 14 died, it’s impossible to draw a straight line between the policy reversal and the deaths. But it stands to simple reason that leaving more New Yorkers on the streets increases the risk of the homeless dying in the cold, even given the emergency “Code Blue” measures that were put into place as the cold descended on the city.

In December, after he won the election, but before he was sworn in, Mamdani said he was going to stop the sweeps of the encampments. But there is nothing humane about letting people sleep in the street. The former policy was the only compassionate response to........

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