Mayor Mamdani can look out from his window at City Hall to see the homeless crisis firsthand.
A 52-year-old homeless man was bedding down on the frozen sidewalk across the street from the City Hall guardhouse in Lower Manhattan Thursday — just one of thousands braving a killer cold spell on the streets as the lefty mayor takes a hands-off approach to the crisis.
The Post called 311 to get the man some help — but no one came.
“I’ve actually witnessed people on the ground dead,” vagrant Claude Brown said.
A native of Chicago, Brown has roamed through Atlanta and Boston before landing in the Big Apple, and said “it’s been a while” since he started living on the streets.
He appeared to be in dire need of intervention. He rambled when he spoke and his thoughts were jumbled, if not outright nonsensical — repeatedly referring to Chinatown as China, complaining about newspapers being shredded, and griping about turning on the water at church “and there was nothing there.”
Brown said he and other homeless New Yorkers have shunned the shelters and the services provided there and are braving Arctic conditions outdoors because the constant threat of theft or violence in the system.
“I’m not interested,” Brown said. “I wouldn’t go because I’ve been through too much with the shelter. I went through an issue where it’s killing people in Boston in the shelter. Sanitation issues, it’s just too many, too much ongoing struggle to get you to say this.
“The journey that I’ve been on since Atlanta — I’ve been here, I went to prison,” he said.
Dora Pekec, Mamdani’s press secretary, said outreach workers canvassed the location where Brown had been twice throughout the day.
“Even though this individual has repeatedly declined services in the past, outreach workers will continue to work to build trust and encourage them to come inside and take that first important step toward stabilizing their lives,” Pekec said.
The ticket for 311 reflected no response as of 6:30 p.m. when The Post spotted the man still outside Citi Bank.
The current cold snap has claimed 10 lives — at least six of them who’ve been through the city’s homeless shelter system, Mamdani said this week.
Since Jan. 15, there have been 1,059 calls for a homeless person in need of assistance, records show.
In 638 cases, the health department couldn’t find the person, while more than 200 refused services and only 30 accepted help, according to 311 records through Tuesday night, the latest data available.
Homeless locals interviewed by The Post said they typically refused to tag along when they’re offered shelter.
“Two nights ago he came and said, ‘I have your room ready,'” one man on Jamaica Avenue who identified himself only as Victor said Thursday. “‘You wanna go? Come, let’s go. I have your room ready.’
“I didn’t go,” he said. “I have my jacket and my two blankets. I don’t want to go. They make too much noise there.”
At an encampment on West 18th Street in Manhattan, two tents remained occupied despite plummeting temperatures.
Despite the new mayor’s expressed concern, critics contend much of the problem is his vow to be more hands-off in dealing with the homeless crisis — a significantly softer approach than the raids of encampments pushed by ex-Mayor Eric Adams to get vagrants in from the cold.
Mamdani said he would instead take a housing-first approach to the homeless issue rather than call for similar sweeps — but he hasn’t spelled out how he plans to get them to come in from the cold.
“I don’t care what your ideology is,” former city Comptroller Scott Stringer said this week. “When it’s 7 degrees, you get everyone in a safe place.”
On Thursday, Brown was snoozing on the sidewalk outside 250 Broadway, a stone’s throw from City Hall when The Post called 311 — and later moved several doorways down the street.
But city outreach workers never showed up at either location after three hours.
Officials at City Hall did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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