Half-Dozen Homeless Freeze to Death In NYC As Mamdani Faces Blame

At least six of the 10 people found dead outdoors during New York City’s brutal arctic deep freeze this week were homeless, according to Mayor Zohran Mamdani, igniting sharp criticism over the city’s handling of public safety and homelessness during life-threatening weather.

The fatalities, reported across four boroughs, have intensified calls from advocates and former officials for a tougher, more assertive response to keep vulnerable individuals off the streets during extreme cold. Critics argue that ideology-driven restraint has replaced common-sense emergency action, even as temperatures plunged into single digits.

Some elected officials and homelessness advocates said the city should be far more aggressive in compelling people into shelters when conditions become deadly. Mamdani, however, has maintained that forced removals are a “last resort” and has ordered his administration to halt the clearing of tent encampments throughout the city. The New York Post reported.

“I don’t care what your ideology is,” former city Comptroller Scott Stringer said. “When it’s 7 degrees, you get everyone in a safe place.”

Stringer, who has run twice for mayor, said the number of deaths should have automatically triggered a far more robust emergency response.

“If there were 10 shooting deaths, there would be a mass mobilization,” he told The Post.

Dave Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, described the death toll as nearly unheard of in the city’s modern history.

“I’ve lived in New York City all my life and I can’t remember a time when so many people have died from a winter storm in such a short period of time, it’s absolutely tragic,” Giffen said Wednesday.

Former city officials echoed those concerns, arguing that authorities have both a moral obligation and a public safety mandate to intervene decisively during life-threatening weather.

Former FDNY Commissioner Tom Van Essen said he would have instructed firefighters and EMS personnel to transport homeless individuals to shelters “whether they like it or not,” placing blame on state lawmakers for making involuntary removals more difficult.

“We have many mentally ill people who are incarcerated at Rikers,” Van Essen said. “But we allow other mentally ill people to freeze to death?”

City data shows that cold exposure remains a persistent and deadly problem. In 2023 alone, there were 29 deaths tied to cold exposure, with an annual average of 27 deaths recorded between 2017 and 2023.

The official causes of death for the 10 fatalities this year have not yet been determined by the city medical examiner.

Not all of the victims were homeless. At least one was a 90-year-old woman suffering from dementia who wandered from her Brooklyn apartment before being found dead Monday morning, according to Gothamist.

Police said the deaths occurred across Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx, with six victims already deceased by the time first responders arrived.

In one case, hospital staff at St. Barnabas Hospital found a 60-year-old man unresponsive outside the facility early Saturday morning. Though he was brought inside, he was later pronounced dead.

Another man was discovered naked by a construction worker in the Bronx on Monday, while a 47-year-old man was found slumped on a bench outside a Key Foods supermarket in Queens, according to law enforcement sources.

The deaths followed Mamdani’s decision upon taking office to end homeless encampment raids that were carried out under former Mayor Eric Adams.

On Tuesday, Mamdani reiterated that people would only be forced off the streets if they posed an immediate danger to themselves or others.

“This is a last resort,” he said.

“Our first method of outreach is to communicate to homeless New Yorkers across the five boroughs as to the options that they have,” Mamdani added. “We, however, are not going to leave someone out in the cold if they’re a danger to themselves or to others.”

City Hall said outreach teams were dispatched every two hours, additional warming centers and vans were deployed, and faith-based organizations were asked to assist. Still, critics said the tragic outcome proves the city’s approach is failing.

“Is the city doing enough? I think the answer to that is very clearly no because of the fact there have been so many deaths,” Giffen said.