Mayor Zohran Mamdani: Good afternoon, everyone. Before we get started, I want to thank our NYCEM leadership, our dedicated agencies, and every single city worker who has been working tirelessly throughout these freezing conditions. An arctic front continues to bear down on our city. New York remains in a cold Code Blue. Though a couple afternoons may have slipped above freezing this week, 34 degrees is the balmiest that it has been. We are now headed into what will be some of the coldest days yet, with real field temperatures plummeting to 10 below. These will be lethal conditions. Being outside for even a short period of time could pose a severe risk.
For nearly three weeks, our dedicated outreach teams have been traversing every borough to protect the vulnerable and homeless from the elements. Since Monday, January 19th, we have made over 1,250 placements into shelters and safe havens and involuntarily transported 27 New Yorkers who are determined to be a danger either to themselves or to those around them. Last night, we doubled the number of placements to shelter from the previous night, a sign that our committed outreach and expanded options for vulnerable New Yorkers are making a difference. 17 New Yorkers have tragically lost their lives outside during this prolonged period of extreme cold. I send my deepest condolences to their loved ones.
As the cold deepens this weekend, we are taking a number of additional emergency steps to protect New Yorkers, building on our work of the past few weeks. To provide New Yorkers with as many shelter options as possible, we are adding roughly 65 new hotel shelter units for individuals reluctant to accept congregate settings. This weekend, we are operating 62 warming centers and vehicles. We are reopening 10 public schools as warming centers. We are adding two new CUNY warming centers, and we have partnered with two overdose prevention centers to remain open 24 hours per day this weekend for their clients.
We know that a number of these deaths have been individuals who likely overdosed and want to do all we can to prevent any further overdose deaths. We are also announcing a new partnership with Northwell Health to open two new warming facilities. Our mobile warming units are operating at heightened capacity, and we are increasing the number of H&H mobile warming units to 27 on Friday today and 33 by Saturday night. We want every New Yorker who needs help seeking warmth to be able to find it.
In order to meet New Yorkers directly where they are, we are making significant additions to our street outreach operation. We are enlisting the assistance of school nurses who have been trained on direct street outreach and will support DHS outreach workers throughout the weekend. We are mobilizing the crisis management system, a network of neighborhood-based violence interrupters to help with direct street outreach. We are partnering with Association of Community Employment Programs for the Homeless, otherwise known as ACE, an organization that works with New Yorkers with histories of homelessness, incarceration, and addiction to deploy staff to enhance our direct street outreach efforts.
We are also asking business improvement districts across the city to help with direct street outreach. We are sharing messaging with them about how to connect New Yorkers to shelters, safe havens, and resources. And we are piloting a new peer outreach model, where formerly homeless New Yorkers are paired with outreach workers to encourage homeless New Yorkers to seek shelter indoors. This is an all-hands-on-deck operation, and I am deeply grateful to our partner agencies for stepping up to expand our outreach. Throughout this difficult period, the feedback we've received directly from New Yorkers has also proved vital. Thank you to each one of you across the city who has done so, including within our press corps.
Our team has worked to be responsive and incorporate changes in real time. When it became clear that not enough New Yorkers knew of the warming spaces available to them, we added clear and comprehensive signage, so that resources were easier to access. And when we were told that the 311 menu was too difficult to navigate, we moved the prompt for assisting a homeless individual closer to the top of the call. Previously, when you would call 311, it would take 1 minute and 20 seconds to be able to call for help for a homeless New Yorker. Now it takes approximately 40 seconds. We also rolled out a PSA across our LinkNYC kiosks, alerting New Yorkers that they could call 311 directly from the kiosk itself to find a warm space.
With this cold continuing to endure, so too will our efforts. While City government is doing everything in our power to offer warm spaces, shelter, and protection, I am echoing my call to our fellow New Yorkers. We must all do our part to ensure that we keep everyone safe over the next few days to come. If you see someone in need, please call 311 immediately so our outreach workers and first responders at FDNY and NYPD can provide assistance. And to those who may consider themselves more comfortable on the streets, I want to speak directly to you, to [implore] you to come inside. These temperatures are too low and too dangerous to survive. Please wait out the cold in a safe place with a warm bed.
If you know someone who may need to hear this message, I ask you, share this across your social media, whether it be on WhatsApp or WeChat or however you may communicate with those that you know. It may seem small, but truly every single effort makes a difference in keeping New Yorkers safe amidst what will be some of the coldest weather we have experienced in this city in quite some time. To receive more information, I urge all New Yorkers who have not already done so to sign up for NotifyNYC by texting NotifyNYC to 692-692. Our work to keep New Yorkers safe will not stop. Stay warm, stay inside if you can, and please stay safe. Thank you very much.
Question: So, tonight you've implored the people in the streets who don't want to — who feel more comfortable on the streets to come inside. But what happens if they don't, at this point? I mean, you even said 20 minutes out in the cold could lead to a fatality. So, is — are you not using it as a last resort at this point, to bring them inside involuntarily, remove them, even if it's just a few hours, it doesn't lead to a placement?
Mayor Mamdani: So, involuntary transport continues to be used in the same manner it was as the prior administration. And thus far, we have seen clinical determinations of a number of New Yorkers who have been deemed to be a danger to themselves or to others. And sometimes that designation comes from an assessment that a New Yorker is not adequately clothed given the weather that they are living through in that moment. And that is going to continue to be part of the assessments that outreach workers are making over the course of tomorrow, the next day. What also separates this weekend from those that have come prior is the expansion of the number of outreach workers that will be out there, including additional nurses who will be making those kinds of determinations.
Question: But I think the clarification of — is there any such thing at this point as being adequately clothed? You can't say there's — there's not enough clothing, at this point, to safely be out there. So, what leads to that determination?
Mayor Mamdani: I trust our nurses in making that determination as well as other New Yorkers who are authorized to do so. They've done so in a number of moments, and they've brought those New Yorkers inside, and that may be the case for this weekend as well.
Question: Hey mayor, I'm wondering if the police department hasn't been directed at all to stop removing homeless people from subways or subway stations. I have a second part to that question — Legal Aid Coalition for the Homeless said — told us that they feel there hasn't been enough coordination between groups in terms of helping, and I'm wondering what your — some private hospitals, I don't know that they shouldn't be kicking people out — like some of those sort of issues that are coming up. So, I'm wondering, have you done anything in terms of coordination? Have you heard that? Are you working to solve that?
Mayor Mamdani: I think each and every day is an opportunity to address any of the concerns that we hear from New Yorkers over the course of this enhanced Code Blue. This began on January 19th. It is continuing given the weather, and one of the things to make more seamless is how to ensure that every agency [communicates] with another, but also to external groups as well. And I think that's part of what I was referring to earlier and saying that when New Yorkers share their feedback with us about how we can better meet their needs, it is helpful towards ensuring that we can do so.
Question: Has the Police Department been instructed not to remove homeless people? What has been the guidance — in context of whether they are a danger to themselves, or whether —
Mayor Mamdani: If the NYPD determines that someone is a danger to themselves or to others, it falls within the earlier question around involuntary transport, and they can also make that determination.
Question: What is the number of the outreach workers you have across each borough and when exactly will this outreach on the ground start?
Mayor Mamdani: So, this outreach on the ground has been a fact of our response since the beginning of Code Blue. That number — I'll get back to you on the total number that we will have this weekend, but it is an expansion from what we have had. I've had the pleasure, frankly, of meeting a number of those outreach workers. They are out there at all times of day and at night, and they are doing the work again and again of connecting homeless New Yorkers with safe haven sites and with shelters, and it's thanks to their work, frankly, that we've seen there be more than 1,200 placements thus far.
Question: And when does that start, the work on the ground, does that start tonight?
Mayor Mamdani: That's been the case since the Code Blue began, but we'll get back to you on the total number we will see for this week.
Question: You mentioned a new pilot peer outreach program. I wonder if you can talk a little bit more about that. How many new teams? I mean, this seems like an interesting time to roll out a new — I assume it's a brand-new program considering we're in sort of an emergency situation. And then my second question, on Brian Lehrer this week, you were asked about the Staten Island warming buses, and you said the buck stops with you and that ultimately that that's your fault as mayor, as the person at the very top. Do you apply that same line of thinking to the deaths in the cold? Do you think that as mayor, you're ultimately responsible for these deaths?
Mayor Mamdani: I think as the mayor, I'm responsible for city actions across the five boroughs. And I think that I have to be clear about that, because I think for far too long, New Yorkers have been told to cast blame in different places, and I am the mayor. And so, when a New Yorker has a critique about the way that the city has been running or the way the city has been responding, it's my job to hear them. And I'm lucky to be surrounded not only by an incredible team today, but frankly, every day in ensuring that we can be the best that we can be. But there's always more to be done.
And I think to your first question, when outreach workers approach a homeless New Yorker, oftentimes what they will find is that a homeless New Yorker's response to the offer of shelter is informed by their experiences in the past, their experiences in the shelter system, their experiences with city services. And when you conduct outreach with a peer, it has been shown to be more effective at times in making that case, because it is actually someone else who has lived through the same kind of experiences. And so that's part of what is motivating us to use not only every tool at our disposal, but also to have this be a part of what it will look like this weekend at a time when the cold is quite frankly at a level that New Yorkers have not seen for a long time.
Question: I wonder if you feel you've been able — the administration has been able to communicate clearly enough about these 17 deaths. I think we've learned very little about the deaths, and do you think you've done a good enough job communicating about that? And for off topic, I'll ask about your executive order.
Mayor Mamdani: You know, I leave it to New Yorkers to make that judgment. What I will tell you is we always want to share whatever information we have about the New Yorkers who have lost their lives outside over the course of this cold. As you said, it's 17 at this point, where we have seen preliminary indications that 13 of them lost their lives as a result of hypothermia, preliminary indications that three of them lost their lives as a result of overdose and one still to be determined even at a preliminary level. And we share this also not only to mourn them and to share our condolences with their loved ones, but also because oftentimes in our city, we as New Yorkers believe that we can brave any set of conditions. What we are talking about, however, is weather that can be fatal if you are subjected to it for a longer period of time. And we're looking to use every single tool we have to ensure that we can keep New Yorkers indoors and warm.
Question: The Department of Homeland Security is sounding off about your executive order today. They said that it's going to make New Yorkers less safe as a direct result of the policy. And they say there are 7,000 migrants who are in the custody of New York jurisdiction with an active detainer and that you should not release them. What's your message to the secretary?
Mayor Mamdani: My message to everyone is that these are policies that keep New Yorkers safe. These are policies that are motivated by delivering public safety, not in spite of public safety. And today's executive order was, in part, a restatement of existing City policy about the fact that we do not allow ICE agents into City properties, such as a school or a hospital, without a judicial warrant signed by a judge; as well as additional directives to ensure full compliance with these policies across every city agency — the directive to create an interagency apparatus that can respond in times of sudden crisis, and to take every measure we can to protect New Yorkers' privacy. Those are the things that keep New Yorkers safe. Safety is what we're motivated by. That's what we're going to deliver.
Question: Mr. Mayor, have you considered asking New Yorkers to call 911 directly instead of 311 to avoid all of those prompts and to create a more urgent sense of having to call right now? And also, of the people that your clinicians, your officers have interacted with, you said you've made 27 involuntary convictions. How many people have they interacted with where they said, “No, that person does have a capacity to decide. I'm going to stay out on the street”?
Mayor Mamdani: I don't have that number for you. But on the first question, would you mind just restating that, Nicole? [Inaudible.]
Oh, yes. Yes. This has been a part of typical Code Blue policies. However, once we get to the end of this winter storm, we're going to be doing a full reflection as to what the city's policies have been thus far, what needs to be changed. Thank you.
Question: It's Boris Herrmann from Germany's newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung. There's a growing debate in Europe about boycotting the Soccer World Cup in the United States [due to the] policies of the federal government — Minneapolis, Greenland, you know. So, as a former player of the Talking Headers, you know, the city where a couple of games are played, what do you think about boycotts and what would be an appropriate way to show for international soccer fans that they're not happy with the federal government?
Mayor Mamdani: You said, “As a former player” — I was wondering who it was going to be in reference to. And, somehow, it's me.
I am incredibly passionate about the world's game. I am incredibly excited at the prospect of hosting the world here in this city and across this country for the most-watched sporting event across the globe. And I also understand why many have shared their own critiques of policies that we're seeing across this country. I have engaged in that myself, in criticisms, especially around immigration enforcement as we've been speaking about today, and I know that you referenced as one of the motivators of that. I will leave it to others to make their own determinations. What I will say, however, is that we are very excited here in New York City to welcome the world and to show that not only is this a city where the world is at home, but it's also a city where much of the world has found a home and that those New Yorkers are so excited at the prospect of seeing every single part of themselves reflected in, hopefully, what will be an incredible tournament.
Question: So, we checked out a couple of warming centers today. At one of them, the bus was not there. We circled the block. Another one had very minimal signage and like two people on board. Another one also had minimal signage. So, when will that clear additional signage be put up? And then, what's the protocol if the warming bus is just not there?
Mayor Mamdani: Well, a warming bus should be exactly where it's supposed to be. And signage is something that — ever since it's been brought up to us — that has actually been in progress for us to put up that signage, to make clear in every possible way where this is. The other part of what I mentioned earlier today is that we are now adding in as a tool into LinkNYC kiosks, where not only can New Yorkers make a call directly to 311 to inform them of a homeless individual that's in need of help, but also there will be a way in which to find a list of warming centers as well.
Question: What if the bus isn't there?
Mayor Mamdani: That's something that we're going to follow up on. It shouldn't be something that New Yorkers have to worry about.
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