NEW YORK — The city has dismantled more than 200 homeless encampments within the past two weeks, officials said Wednesday, as the mayor continued to defend the controversial process. 

A task force comprising four city agencies — the Department of Homeless Services, the NYPD, the Department of Sanitation and the Department of Parks and Recreation — began clearing encampments on March 18, the city’s deputy mayor for operations, Meera Joshi, said at a news briefing Wednesday afternoon.

As of Wednesday, 239 of the 244 sites the task force identified as encampments had been “cleaned,” Joshi said. DHS posts notices at each site “at least 24 hours in advance of the cleanup, and engages with clients if they are on site,” she noted. 

“A lot of these engagements are successful, because when DSNY and DHS come back some 24 hours later, sometimes the sites are cleaned up,” she said. “That is, the notice that the site is going to be cleaned up has had the effect, and people have collected their belongings and moved on.” 

If the encampment has not been dismantled, DHS will “get to the site, and they’ll do the cleanup,” Joshi said.

“And this is not a rushed job,” she added. “This takes a time, especially patience, because when people are on site, DHS and DSNY are explaining the process to them in detail, and giving them the time to comprehend it.” 

Joshi’s remarks came amid mounting criticism surrounding Mayor Eric Adams’ push to dismantle the encampments. 

Advocates have argued that clearing the sites simply pushes people who are experiencing homelessness from one site to another. The Coalition for the Homeless, for its part, called the Adams administration’s recent efforts “cruel public relations tactics that do not address the real problem.” 

Adams on Wednesday, however, said he would continue to “ignore the noise.” 

“This is the first inning of our ninth-inning game. I’m not concerned about striking out. I’m not concerned about someone hitting out pitches,” he said. “I’m concerned about the end of this game. And when this game is over, we’re going to have a city far better than a dysfunctional city that we’ve witnessed for far too long.”

Addressing concerns that workers were tossing out personal belongings after clearing the encampments, Adams said people would receive vouchers allowing them to collect their possessions — with some exceptions. 

“If you have something that is soiled with human waste, something that is rubbish, they’re making the right decision,” he said. “And we’re not throwing people off the street, let’s be clear here. You have a right to sleep on the street. You don’t have a right to build a miniature house.”

Task force members, Adams said, will offer people experiencing homelessness brochures with photos of the city’s Safe Haven beds, as well as information about available services. 

The city’s Safe Haven sites offer shelter and resources for those who “may be resistant to accepting or who may not be best served by other services, including traditional transitional housing settings,” Adams' office said in a press release. The mayor attended the opening of a Safe Haven site in the Bronx on Tuesday.

A partnership set to be announced within the next few weeks, meanwhile, will roll out a “grassroots effort of volunteers who are going to assist in engaging those who are homeless,” he said Wednesday. 

While only five people experiencing homelessness had accepted services offered by the task force’s outreach workers as of Wednesday, the mayor said, he maintained that number would soon increase, citing data collected as part of the city’s subway safety initiative.

Twenty-two people accepted outreach services within the first week of the transit initiative, he said. As of Wednesday, that figure had risen above 300. 

“As the mayor of all of us, including my homeless brothers and sisters, I’m not leaving any New Yorkers behind. We’re moving together, and that is the goal of what we must accomplish. I’m not abandoning anyone,” Adams said. “This city is now engaged in a multi-agency mission with compassion and caring, taking our time, not rushing through this, but being compassionate to people who are experiencing terrible circumstances that they’re living through.”