The city is intensifying outreach and loosening traditional shelter intake procedures to accommodate more New Yorkers during this week\u2019s frigid temperatures.<\/p>\n
At least 10 people were found dead outside following extremely cold weather over the past several days, according to Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Their causes of deaths are under investigation and have not officially been ruled weather-related.<\/p>\n
“We don’t yet know if every case will be ruled hypothermia, but we need every New Yorker to be alert and looking out for their neighbors,” the mayor said.<\/p>\n
Hospitals were asked to limit overnight discharges for those unhoused, a standard protocol during aCode Blue. Molly Wasow Park, commissioner for the Department of Social Services, says they reminded hospitals of the protocol on Monday.<\/p>\n
“It’s standard policy in Code Blue that all hospital waiting rooms are accessible to those who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness,” said Wasow Park.<\/p>\n
The city is expanding overnight outreach efforts, paying workers overtime in an effort to find all vulnerable people who are living outside.<\/p>\n
Wasow Park says the Department of Homeless Services has been using a list to track down at least 350 people who are known in the system and considered high risk. The commissioner says outreach teams are checking those locations roughly every two hours.<\/p>\n
“The individuals who have very tragically passed away, they are people with DHS history, at this point, I don’t want to go too in depth because they are investigations underway, but to my knowledge it is not individuals on the by name list,” said Wasow Park.<\/p>\n
Since Jan. 19, approximately 500 people have been moved off the streets and into shelters, according to DSS. It has not been without challenge, as the city says at least three people were forced against their wishes into the hospital through involuntary removal.<\/p>\n
“If a person is truly in danger, we will take action to save their lives,” said Wasow Park.<\/p>\n
The mayor’s office has opened 10 new warming shelters since the Friday before the winter storm that dumped a foot of snow in many parts of the city. Ten warming buses have been added throughout the boroughs.<\/p>\n
While action is intensifying, the Legal Aid Society and Coalition for the Homeless argue that decades of mismanagement within the shelter system cannot be undone in a single emergency response, releasing a joint statement:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe agree with the Mayor that we need to expand outreach services to help more New Yorkers. After more than a decade of relentless sweeps, many unhoused New Yorkers have learned to avoid outreach by the New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS) entirely \u2014 because too often, DHS outreach has meant losing their belongings, hostile interactions with law enforcement, and not receiving meaningful help.<\/p>\n
Moreover, outreach workers lack the ability to offer unhoused New Yorkers the one thing they need most: permanent housing. Rebuilding that trust and increasing the supply of affordable housing will take time and cannot be accomplished overnight. The City also lacks the staffing capacity to check on every known unsheltered person in the critical hours before severe weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the City may be taking steps now, decades of systemic failure cannot be reversed with a few days of outreach or warming buses. Forty years of mismanagement of homelessness and the shelter system cannot be undone in a single emergency response,”<\/p>\n
As of Tuesday morning, DSS did not have an exact number on the people who may have left the shelter to return to the streets.<\/p>\n
“We have been doing follow ups with individuals who came into the warming shelters we were able to connect all those people with ongoing placements,” said Wasow Park.<\/p>\n
Warming Spaces in the Bronx:<\/p>\n
H+H Clinic – Gotham Belvis
\n\t545 East 142nd St.
\n\tOpen 7 p.m. – 7 a.m.<\/p>\n
H+H Clinic – Gotham Morrisania
\n\t1225 Gerard Ave.
\n\tOpen 7 p.m. – 7 a.m.<\/p>\n
Warming Buses<\/p>\n
Warming vehicles are parked outside the following locations:<\/p>\n
Dewitt Clinton High School
\n\t100 Moshulu Pkwy.
\n\tOpen 24\/7<\/p>\n
Jacobi Hospital
\n\t1400 Pelham Parkway South
\n\tBus is in front of building #6. Open 7 p.m. – 7 a.m.<\/p>\n
Lincoln Hospital
\n\t234 East 149th St.
\n\tOpen 24\/7<\/p>\n
North Central Bronx Hospital
\n\t3424 Kossuth Ave.
\n\tBus is in front of main entrance. Open 7 p.m. – 7 a.m.<\/p>\n
Warming Spaces in Brooklyn:<\/p>\n
H+H Clinic – Gotham Cumberland
\n\t100 North Portland Ave.
\n\tOpen 7 p.m. – 7 a.m.<\/p>\n
H+H Clinic – Gotham East New York
\n\t2094 Pitkin Ave.
\n\tOpen 7 p.m. – 7 a.m.<\/p>\n
Kings County Hospital
\n\t451 Clarkson Ave.
\n\tOpen 24\/7<\/p>\n
South Brooklyn Hospital
\n\t2601 Ocean Pkwy.
\n\tOpen 24\/7<\/p>\n
Warming Buses<\/p>\n
Warming vehicles are parked outside the following locations:<\/p>\n
16 Bedford Place
\n\tOpen 24\/7<\/p>\n
Coney Island \u2013 Stillwell Avenue Subway Station
\n\tLocation
\n\tOpen 10 p.m.-5 a.m.<\/p>\n
Flatbush Avenue \u2013 Brooklyn College Subway Station
\n\tLocation
\n\tOpen 10 p.m.-5 a.m.<\/p>\n
Woodhull Hospital
\n\t760 Broadway
\n\tBus is directly outside Emergency Room on Flushing Avenue. Open 7 p.m.-7 a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city is intensifying outreach and loosening traditional shelter intake procedures to accommodate more New Yorkers during this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,21490,1445,22925,9,24,63,129,131,130,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-114406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-code-blue","10":"tag-mamdani","11":"tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-the-bronx","16":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","17":"tag-the-bronx-news","18":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}