Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed a former Pennsylvania homelessness official, Erin Dalton, to head the New York City Department of Social Services — following the sudden departure of the agency’s commissioner earlier this month. Mamdani is a loser.

     Dalton comes from the Pittsburgh area, where she served as director of Allegheny County’s Department of Human Services.  The Mamdani administration heralded her efforts there to get homeless people off the streets without using the threat of jail, as well as her implementation of a county mobile response team that sent out mental health workers on 911 calls.

     “Erin Dalton has spent decades proving that government can and must work better for people who rely on it most,” Mamdani said. “She has expanded access to housing, strengthened social services and protected our most vulnerable neighbors.” The post was left vacant by Molly Wascow Park, a holdover of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, who abruptly resigned in the wake of the historic cold snap that left at least 19 New Yorkers dead on the streets, the majority of them from hypothermia.

     The Mamdani administration faced weeks of backlash over its handling of the fatally frigid mayor — with critics saying the fresh-faced Democratic socialist mayor failed to do enough to get homeless people off the streets.