Mamdani finds way to downplay homeless deaths after deadly blizzard
(Daily Caller News Foundation) – Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday defended how his administration responded to a deadly winter storm and a spike in homeless…
(Daily Caller News Foundation) – Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday defended how his administration responded to a deadly winter storm and a spike in homeless deaths.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports,” Mamdani contrasted the latest blizzard with a previous cold snap that left 19 people dead outdoors and seven others dead inside. Critics connected these fatalities to exposure and heating breakdowns.
“Did you deal differently with the unhoused population this time around? Because there was some criticism as to what happened to a number of people during the last storm and the cold snap. Nineteen outdoor deaths. Nineteen. That’s a really high number,” host Katy Tur said. “There were seven indoor deaths as well, potentially linked to bad heating or no heating at all. Did you change your strategy, and are you confident that everybody who was out in the streets got inside and survived?”
“A number of those New Yorkers who lost their lives, the preliminary indications came that it was from an overdose-related death,” Mamdani said. “And so, we worked with our overdose prevention centers to keep them open, not just during the weekday hours that they would typically have. But over the course of the weekend nights. So they are open not just last night, but also tonight, and that has been critical in saving New Yorkers’ lives.”
Mamdani said aggressive outreach efforts helped prevent fatalities among the city’s homeless population.
“So, as of now, we have no deaths reported from this blizzard, from being outside or in a public area. And we have also been looking to utilize every single method of outreach that we have. We have more than 500 homeless outreach workers who have been traversing the five boroughs looking to connect homeless New Yorkers with services and support,” Mamdani said. “And what we’ve also learned is the tools that were effective over the course of the prolonged cold period, again, a historic period of subfreezing conditions, those are ones we’ve employed from the very first day of our response to this one.”
Using data from city officials, CBS New York said 19 people died during a recent stretch of brutally cold weather, contradicting Mamdani’s suggestion that the city’s response prevented fatalities tied to extreme conditions. The New York Post further reported that medical examiners ruled that at least 15 of the outdoor deaths were caused by hypothermia due to environmental exposure, directly challenging efforts to minimize the role of the cold in those deaths.
The fatalities occurred only weeks after Mamdani pledged in his inaugural address to replace “the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.” The Trump administration offered federal assistance ahead of the sweeping winter storm, but Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul rejectedthe help from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and instead demandedchanges to immigration enforcement as a condition for accepting aid.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/MSNBC)
