Eighteen people have now perished in the city’s brutal cold stretch, Mayor Mamdani said Monday.
The new administration has come under fire for the deaths — and is expected to face heat from city council members Tuesday, when officials will testify during a council oversight hearing on the deaths.
The mayor’s decision to halt the removal of homeless encampments has been one area of controversy, although the mayor has pushed back on that, saying that none of the 18 dead were in or found to be living in an encampment.
None of the 18 New Yorkers who’ve died in this cold stretch had an interaction in the past few weeks with a city outreach worker, Erin Kelly, a deputy chief of staff at the Department of Homeless Services, said Monday.
“Each life lost is a tragedy, and we will continue to hold their families in our thoughts,” Mamdani said at an unrelated press conference on Monday. “I want to thank our dedicated agencies and every city worker who has worked tirelessly through these conditions.”
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
A homeless encampments is pictured on Atlantic Avenue and Conduit Boulevard in Brooklyn on Sunday. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
The city beefed up the city’s street outreach teams and issued a call to action for New Yorkers to call 311 if they saw someone stuck outside in the frigid cold. The city made around 1,400 placements into shelters and safe havens since Jan. 19, since the city has been under a Code Blue warning and involuntarily removed 33 New Yorkers from the streets to a hospital, according to the mayor.
Early results from the city’s Medical Examiner’s Office determined that “hypothermia due to environmental cold exposure” was the root cause of the first five deaths, though alcohol and drugs also contributed. Releasing autopsy findings for five people found dead outside between Jan. 24 and Jan. 26, the city’s Medical Examiner’s Office determined that “hypothermia due to environmental cold exposure” was the root cause of their deaths.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
A BRC homeless outreach team helps vulnerable New Yorkers outside in frigid temperatures in upper Manhattan on Monday. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
Alcohol abuse was a contributing factor in three of those deaths, according to the ME’s office, with use of methamphetamines a factor in a fourth. Autopsies for the other 13 people found dead outdoors are not yet available, although the mayor has said that three of those total deaths were overdose-related.
In comparison, in 2023, the last year for which data is available, 29 people died due to extreme cold, while 52 people died in 2022 and 34 in 2021, according to Health Department data. In 2018, the last time the city experienced such a severe cold stretch, 21 people died due to cold.
