Mayor Mamdani Appoints Erin Dalton as Commissioner of Department of Social Services

 

New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani announced his appointment of Erin Dalton as commissioner of New York City Department of Social Services (DSS).   

  

“New Yorkers deserve leaders who listen and act with urgency. Erin Dalton has spent decades proving that government can and must work better for people who rely on it most. She has expanded access to housing, strengthened social services and protected our most vulnerable neighbors. I’m proud to work alongside Commissioner Dalton to build a city that is more just, effective and accessible for all,” said Mayor Zohran Mamdani.  

  

“I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve the people of New York City and to advance Mayor Mamdani’s affordability and community safety agenda. DSS can reduce the painful trade-offs families make between food and medicine, housing and safe childcare,” said Erin Dalton. “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. I can’t wait to get started.”  

  

“As many New Yorkers struggle to secure permanent housing and access other critical resources, it is imperative that city leaders employ strategies that are both innovative and compassionate to assist those most in need—which is exactly what Erin Dalton has done throughout her career,” said NYC Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Dr. Helen Arteaga. “I am thrilled to welcome Ms. Dalton as the Commissioner of the Department of Social Services and am confident that her experience providing aid to vulnerable populations, while treating individuals with the dignity and respect they deserve, is exactly what our city needs to meet this moment.”  

  

DSS includes the administrative units of the NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA), the nation’s largest social services agency, which assists more than three million low-income and vulnerable New Yorkers each year, and the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), which provides temporary emergency shelter to New Yorkers in need while helping families transition to permanent housing and long-term stability.  

  

About Erin Dalton  

  

Dalton most recently served as the Director of the Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS), where she led one of the nation’s most innovative and integrated human services systems.   

  

Under her leadership, the department drove measurable progress in crisis response and homelessness, including building a coordinated winter shelter network that reduced the number of people living outdoors by nearly 98%. She also led large-scale reforms across behavioral health and community safety systems, redesigning the county’s mobile crisis response system, deploying behavioral health professionals to respond to human service 911 calls, expanding medication-assisted treatment in the jail and advancing violence prevention efforts. During her tenure, violent crime declined by nearly 20%, and incarceration rates fell by almost 10%.  

  

Previously, Dalton directed DHS’s analytics, planning and information technology functions, earning national recognition for pioneering ethical uses of integrated data systems to improve outcomes and reduce racial disparities in decision-making.