The Allegheny County veteran brings a data-driven, dignity-centered approach to homelessness at a critical moment
Mayor Mamdani Names Erin Dalton to Lead NYC’s Social Services Agency
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Wednesday, February 25, that he is naming Erin Dalton as commissioner of the New York City Department of Social Services — a sprawling agency that oversees homeless outreach, emergency shelter, food assistance programs, and public benefits for more than three million New Yorkers. Dalton comes to the role from the Allegheny County Department of Human Services in Pennsylvania, where she led one of the most innovative local human services operations in the country for the past five years.
The appointment fills a leadership vacuum created when Molly Wasow Park, a holdover from the Eric Adams administration, resigned in early February 2026 after weeks of uncertainty about her future under the new mayor. Park’s departure came as the city recorded at least 19 deaths linked to hypothermia during an extreme winter cold snap — a crisis that brought intense scrutiny to homeless outreach operations and the coordination between the Department of Homeless Services and other city agencies.
Who Is Erin Dalton?
Dalton, 51, has spent her career at the intersection of data, public health, and human services. She holds a master’s degree in public policy and management from Carnegie Mellon University and previously worked at the National Institute of Justice, Bloomberg Associates, and the Obama Foundation before joining Allegheny County government. She has been with Allegheny County’s Department of Human Services since 2008, taking over as director in 2021.
Under her leadership, Allegheny County built a network of coordinated winter shelters that reduced the number of people living outdoors by nearly 98 percent during cold snaps — a track record directly relevant to New York City’s recent deadly winter. She also redesigned the county’s mobile crisis response system, deploying behavioral health professionals to handle human services 911 calls rather than police officers. That model closely mirrors Mamdani’s vision for a new Department of Community Safety in New York City. In Pittsburgh’s downtown and riverfront areas, she led an effort that helped more than 80 percent of 250 people living in encampments move into shelter or housing — without threats of arrest.
On Encampments: Dignity Over Criminalization
Dalton’s approach to encampments will be closely watched in New York, where Mamdani initially ended Adams-era sweeps but later reversed course — drawing criticism from homelessness advocates. Dalton has been explicit about her philosophy. In a September 2025 op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, she wrote that moving people from public spaces into shelter and housing “means treating people as neighbors in need, not criminals.” She added: “The rhetoric coming out of our nation’s capital — equating homelessness with crime, suggesting we can arrest our way out of the problem — is not only misleading, it’s dangerous.”
That position places her in alignment with Mamdani’s stated values, even as the mayor has navigated political pressure to resume encampment clearances. The administration has said the Department of Homeless Services, not the NYPD, will decide when and where sweeps occur — a policy distinction from the Adams era that Dalton will be responsible for implementing.
The Stakes: Federal Cuts and Near-Record Homelessness
Dalton arrives in New York at one of the most difficult moments in recent city history for social services. Homelessness is near record levels. The city issued food benefits to more than 1.7 million New Yorkers in December 2025. And the Trump administration is advancing federal budget proposals that could cut billions from housing, food assistance, and Medicaid — programs that DSS administers and that millions of New Yorkers depend on.
The Coalition for the Homeless, one of the city’s most prominent advocacy organizations, has noted that approximately 5,000 vacant housing units with on-site social services could be deployed to house some of the estimated 2,000 people with serious mental illness living on the street. David Giffen, the coalition’s executive director, pointed to New York City’s success in effectively ending veteran homelessness under Mayor Bill de Blasio as a model that the Mamdani administration could seek to replicate.
A Data-Driven Approach
Dalton’s emphasis on data is one of the qualities the Mamdani administration cited most prominently in announcing her appointment. Allegheny County’s Department of Human Services has been recognized nationally for its sophisticated use of integrated data to identify people at risk and coordinate services across agencies — a model that academics and policy researchers have studied as a potential template for other cities. That approach will be put to the test in a city far larger and more complex than Allegheny County, but where the urgency of the challenge is also far greater.
“Erin Dalton has spent decades making government work better for those who need it most,” Mamdani said in a statement. “I’m proud to work alongside Commissioner Dalton to build a city that is more just, effective and accessible for all.”
Dalton said she was “deeply grateful” for the opportunity, pledging to help New Yorkers make fewer “painful trade-offs between food and medicine, housing and safe childcare.” A start date was not announced.
