New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is defending his administration’s handling of this historic, deadly cold stretch — as the City Council plans oversight hearings to assess the response, according to a published report.
A spokesperson for the Council told Politico that the Public Safety and General Welfare committees are expected to hold a Feb. 10 hearing that will primarily address the cold-weather deaths. Other committees, including sanitation, are working on details for another potential joint hearing next week.
Sixteen people have been found dead outside in the five boroughs over a several-day stretch during last week’s most dangerous weather. Autopsy results show hypothermia played a role in at least 13 fatalities.
This, as a potentially worse chill settles in for the weekend, with dangerous cold and biting wind chills on tap.
Mamdani is expected to be asked about the hearings at his press conference later Wednesday. Watch it live in the player above when it starts around 11 a.m.
At a recent news conference, Mamdani emphasized the “Code Blue” his administration initiated on Jan. 19, about two weeks ago, and said the city has been taking “every possible measure to get New Yorkers inside.”
“This has been a full all-hands-on-deck approach,” he reiterated to New Yorkers.
The mayor has said the city continued to intensify outreach, from the Department of Social Services staff to homeless outreach workers and NYPD officers. In some cases, individuals were involuntarily transported because they were perceived to be a danger to themselves or others, Mamdani said.
Nearly 1,000 people have been placed in shelters because of those efforts, he says. When asked if his administration would be more aggressive about having outreach teams move people indoors when temperatures drop again, the mayor said it would still come down to a doctor’s decision.
“I also rely on a clinician’s determination, whether or not [doctors] deem someone to be a threat to themselves or to others. If they do, then those are New Yorkers that are brought inside. Regardless of their own volition,” said Mamdani. “This is the exact policy the prior administration had on involuntary confinement.”
The policy states that outreach teams bring someone inside against their will only as a “last resort.””