NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Friday that his administration will continue to compel homeless New Yorkers to leave the streets only “as a last resort,” even as City Hall disclosed that 13 people have now died outdoors and dangerously cold temperatures are expected to intensify over the weekend.
The Democratic socialist reiterated that outreach teams will require people to enter shelters only when they are judged to be a danger to themselves or others, maintaining that position as forecasted wind chills were expected to plunge to a real-feel low of minus 1 degree from Saturday into Sunday.
When asked how city workers decide whether someone poses a risk to themselves, Mamdani said the determination depends on a range of considerations before forcing someone inside, including whether the individual appears adequately dressed for the cold.
“There are a number of specific criteria that is used in determining whether one is a danger to themselves or to others,” Mamdani told reporters while attending an unrelated event in Long Island City.
“I think we can find some of this criteria also in how an individual is clothed, whether they are deemed to actually be warm in those settings, as well as their behavior,” Hizzoner said.
“And for the New Yorkers who are deemed to be a threat to themselves or to others, there is a process of involuntary confinement which is a last resort,” he continued. “However, it has been utilized a number of times whenever city workers have come to that conclusion.”
Later Friday, the mayor’s office announced that the number of people who have died outdoors had increased by three since last Saturday, when the city was hit by prolonged subfreezing weather and Winter Storm Fern.
A City Hall spokesperson said the total now stands at 13 deaths, up from the 10 reported earlier in the week, covering the period from Saturday through Tuesday. Officials did not release further details about the three additional deaths, and the timing of those fatalities remained unclear.
City officials previously said that at least six of the initial 10 people who died outdoors had earlier contact with the city’s shelter system, and that seven of those deaths were believed to be linked to hypothermia.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was still reviewing the cases to determine official causes of death for all 13 individuals, and their names had not yet been formally released.
One of the deceased was identified as Frederick Jones, 67, who had previously experienced homelessness and was discovered dead Saturday morning in Midtown, roughly a mile from his government-subsidized apartment building, according to a report.
Police responded twice to calls involving Jones — once Friday morning and again around 11:30 p.m. that night, before the coldest temperatures set in — but he declined assistance during the first encounter and did not meet the threshold for involuntary removal. During the second call, first responders were unable to locate him, Gothamist reported.
“I’m just in shock,” Shonell McKinley, Jones’ court-appointed guardian, told the outlet.
“He should not have been outside. He had a roof over his head.”
Another person who died was Michael Veronico, 44, who was found Saturday morning outside a building near Warren Street in Brooklyn and appeared to be homeless.
According to Gothamist, his family said he likely died alone in the extreme cold from a drug overdose after struggling with substance abuse for years.
Mamdani’s administration said Friday that the city has opened 18 “enhanced warming centers” and 20 standard warming centers and has significantly increased outreach efforts ahead of the weekend deep freeze.
Workers from the Department of Homeless Services are now putting in overtime and canvassing streets every two hours, rather than every four, in search of unsheltered individuals.
Since a “cold blue” emergency was declared on Jan. 19, City Hall said outreach teams have placed 825 people into “safe havens” and other shelter options and carried out 15 involuntary removals.
Despite those efforts, Mamdani’s restrained approach to moving people indoors has drawn criticism, including from former Mayor Eric Adams, who urged him to take more aggressive action.
“On 12/05/25, I begged then Mayor-elect Mamdani not to reverse our policy that kept homeless New Yorkers from freezing outdoors in makeshift encampments,” Adams wrote Thursday on X, referring to Mamdani’s decision to halt homeless encampment sweeps upon taking office.
Mamdani had also instructed police and sanitation workers to stop dismantling homeless encampments in the weeks leading up to the deadly cold spell, The Post reported Thursday.
Adams appeared to place responsibility for the deaths on his successor, calling for a return to the prior policy.
“Every day of delay risks more lives,” he said.
Queens Republican Councilwoman Joann Ariola also pressed Mamdani to take firmer steps to move people off the streets.
“If he wants to do better, the Mayor could start by actually enforcing the Code Blue so our most vulnerable stop freezing to death on our streets,” she said.
“Especially during Code Blue conditions, involuntary commitment has to be on the table to protect people who clearly lack the capacity to understand the danger of remaining on the streets in extreme weather,” said Queens Councilman Phil Wong, a Democrat.
“We’ve already seen 10 people die, and we are not seeing the urgency needed to use tools like involuntary commitment quickly enough to prevent further loss of life.”
Among those found dead Saturday morning was a homeless woman identified by law enforcement sources as 64-year-old Barbara Szuter in Brooklyn, authorities said.
That same morning, a 60-year-old man was discovered outside St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx. Staff rushed him inside for treatment, but he was later pronounced dead, police said.
Authorities also reported that one man in Manhattan and another in Queens were separately found outdoors Saturday morning and later died at local hospitals.
One of the victims, 52-year-old Nolberto Jimbo-Niola, was found seated on a bench in North Corona, Queens, on Sunday morning, just days after being discharged from Elmhurst Hospital, according to Gothamist, citing state Sen. Jessica Ramos and other officials.
Another fatality was 90-year-old Doreen Ellis, who lived in a Brooklyn apartment and was found dead Monday morning after wandering outside during the snowstorm the night before. Loved ones told Gothamist that she suffered from dementia.
A man whose age was not immediately available was also found dead Monday morning at a construction site in the Bronx.
The 10th death reported before the updated tally involved a 47-year-old man who apparently fell from a bench, struck his head, and was found dead Tuesday outside a Key Foods supermarket in Flushing, Queens, sources told The Post.
City data shows there were 29 cold-exposure deaths in 2023, based on the most recent figures that do not distinguish between people who were homeless and those who had shelter. From 2020 through 2023, the city averaged roughly 34 cold-exposure fatalities each year.
{Matzav.com}
