Mamdani picks new head of NYC homeless, social services from out of state: Erin Dalton

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is turning to an administrator from outside the five boroughs to lead New York City’s sprawling social services agency amid near record-high homelessness, a deep shortage of affordable housing and an intense winter that has been deadly for homeless New Yorkers.

Mamdani is naming Erin Dalton as head of the city’s Department of Social Services, his office said Wednesday. She previously led the Allegheny County Department of Human Services in the Pittsburgh area.

Dalton declined to comment when contacted by Gothamist earlier this month about her potential appointment, but said in a statement Wednesday that she was grateful for the opportunity to push forward Mamdani’s “affordability and community safety agenda.”

“DSS can reduce the painful trade-offs families make between food and medicine, housing and safe childcare,” she said. “We can work to help the best public servants in the country deliver assistance more efficiently and with greater dignity. And we can work relentlessly so that all New Yorkers have access to better resources.”

The department is a crucial agency for millions of residents, including tens of thousands of people in homeless shelters and millions who receive cash, food or rental assistance. The agency includes the Department of Homeless Services and Human Resources Administration, and employs more than 14,000 people, though hundreds of budgeted positions remain vacant.

Dalton previously oversaw a county human services department serving 200,000 residents — fewer than half the number of New Yorkers receiving cash assistance benefits.

The Department of Social Services oversees a shelter system now housing around 90,000 people a night through the city’s unique right-to-shelter rules. The department also oversees the city’s adult protective services and runs the nation’s largest municipal rental assistance program.