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Mamdani says no street deaths so far, dozens brought inside in NYC blizzard
By
Karen Yi
and
David Brand
Published Feb 23, 2026
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Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
By
Karen Yi
and
David Brand
Published Feb 23, 2026
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani said no one has so far died on the city’s streets after a blizzard blanketed New York City with as much as two feet of snow in some areas. It's a sharp contrast from the January's storm and its frigid aftermath, when at least 20 people were found dead outdoors in the cold.
The mayor said outreach teams brought more than 160 New Yorkers sleeping in the streets into temporary beds or warning spaces over the last two nights, but that homeless service workers did not remove anyone against their will for mental health or safety reasons. The NYPD said officers involuntarily removed one person who was a danger to themselves.
“Throughout this storm, our outreach workers have continually canvassed all five boroughs helping homeless New Yorkers find shelter,” Mamdani said in a press conference Monday. “I want to be very clear, if you need warmth and shelter, it is available to you.”
The Mamdani administration has faced increasing scrutiny after at least 27 people died in public spaces or inside their homes following a storm and weekslong cold stretch that began Jan. 18. Hypothermia was the cause of death for at least 22 of the people, according to the city medical examiner’s office. The death toll touched off a bitter debate over the city’s street homelessness response, and prompted calls from some city council members and other leaders to force more people off the streets.
Mamdani said the city stepped up round-the-clock outreach efforts to urge people staying in parks, sidewalks and other public spaces to come indoors. Some homeless outreach groups, too, increased the number of teams targeting vulnerable New Yorkers but said they found fewer people outdoors this time.
“Folks really took heed of the blizzard warnings that went out citywide this time around, people just made different choices,” said Alexandra Francis, executive vice president of case management at BronxWorks, which the city hires to do outreach for the Bronx.
She said BronxWorks helped 10 people on Sunday night, compared to 50 the first night of the January snowstorm.
Mamdani said workers contracted through the city’s Department of Homeless Services placed 86 people in beds or warming centers Saturday night and another 79 through Monday afternoon. He said the city also fast-tracked the opening of 100 so-called stabilization beds, which are in facilities with no curfews and fewer restrictions than traditional shelters. They are intended to appeal to more street homeless New Yorkers.
Mamdani also said the city had not conducted any homeless encampment sweeps during the storm. He restarted the controversial strategy for clearing homeless New Yorkers out of public spaces last week, though with some key differences from the tactics of his predecessor Eric Adams’ administration. Mamdani put the city’s homeless services agency in charge of sweeps and said outreach workers will visit locations every day for a week before sanitation workers and police arrive to break up an encampment.
NYPD officials said starting midnight Sunday they conducted more than 900 visits to encampments to urge people to come indoors. Of the 130 people they contacted, two voluntarily accepted services, 127 refused and one person was involuntarily committed.
The city also mobilized 22 warming buses across the city and opened warming centers at 11 city-run hospitals and 13 schools.
Francis said the city’s warming buses have been helpful to convince people to come off the streets.
“Folks still want to be able to practice a sense of agency over what they do and have the choices,” she added.
Speaking on WNYC’s "All Things Considered" Monday, Mamdani said the city was learning from the last storm. He said because a number of the outdoor deaths were also due to overdose complications, the city kept overdose prevention centers open all through the night on Sunday and will keep them open through Monday night.
Tagged
economy
housing
new york city
public safety
Karen Yi
Karen Yi covers homelessness and poverty. She joined the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom in 2020. Before that, Karen covered Newark for the Star-Ledger and spent almost a decade working for newspapers in New Jersey and Florida. She grew up in Miami and has a dog named Cashew. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-589-1460.
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David Brand
David is a reporter covering housing for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 908-310-3960.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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