Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday that street encampments won’t be torn down during one of the worst blizzards in New York City’s history — even as homeless people kept camping out and rejecting offers for shelter.
The bomb cyclone offered a new wintry test for Mamdani’s administration after its response to another storm in January descended into a prolonged, deadly crisis that consumed much of his first 60 days in office.
“The blizzard is a time when our focus should be not on physical infrastructure, but on people and on getting them indoors,” Mamdani argued during a news conference over Winter Storm Hernando.
Nineteen New Yorkers died amid the first blast of winter weather, as critics assailed Mamdani’s arguably feckless response to getting homeless people into shelter.
Hizzoner less than a week ago had reversed his past opposition to clearing out homeless encampments, albeit by giving vagrants a new seven-day notice before they’re rousted.
This storm, outreach workers placed 79 homeless New Yorkers into shelters as up to 2 feet of snow fell on the city — and none of those were involuntary removals, Mamdani said.
But some homeless New Yorkers still flat-out refused help as they slept in the blizzard conditions, The Post witnessed firsthand on the Manhattan Bridge’s footpath.
Several tents were completely covered by snow on the bridge’s Manhattan side as FDNY responders and NYPD officers, along with a private ambulance crew, arrived to make sure the indigent occupants were safe.
“I’m alright,” one man said, shaking his head as responders peeled back the tarps.
An FDNY EMT said the man had rejected appeals made in both English and Spanish.
“We can’t remove them. People have the right to be homeless in New York City,” the EMT said.
Two NYPD officers stood nearby as the worker tried to coax the tent dwellers into better shelter, but didn’t remove the man.
Out of 130 homeless people contacted by police, 127 refused to go into shelters. Only two accepted city services, police officials said.
While city outreach teams did not pull anyone off the streets against their will, NYPD officers involuntarily removed one person whom they deemed a risk to themselves, a police department spokesperson said.
Cops can conduct involuntary removals that take homeless people off the streets if they’re deemed a danger to themselves or others — however, EMTs have no power to pull the person inside.
Those removals are different from the practice of tearing down encampments, which is called a “homeless sweep.”
Both came under scrutiny during the last winter storm. Mamdani was slammed for the 19 outdoor deaths, most from hypothermia, as he contended involuntary removals should only be done as a last resort.
Outreach teams with a licensed clinician conducted 33 involuntary removals between Jan. 19 and Feb. 10, roughly the span of the last storm and subsequent cold snap, according to city officials.
NYPD officers conducted 52 removals during that same time period, a spokesperson for the department said.
No deaths have been tied to the latest wintry blast, Mamdani said.
“We are not aware of any deaths related to this blizzard on our city streets or in public areas,” he said.
