New York City opens warming shelters and buses, expands outreach as deadly cold continues
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
Mayor announced 10 new warming shelters, seven health centers and 10 warming buses and said outreach teams and volunteers are intensifying night and subway outreach; DHS says about 350 people on a high-risk by-name list receive repeated outreach and involuntary removals remain a last resort.
New York City opened additional emergency warming resources and expanded outreach this week as a prolonged cold spell threatened people experiencing homelessness. The mayor said the city has "opened up 10 new warming shelters since Friday," put seven additional health centers into operation, and added "10 new warming buses at key locations across the city" to transport and temporarily shelter people during the potentially lethal weather event.
The city is coordinating with shelter providers, faith-based groups and volunteer groups including the Street Homeless Advocacy Project (SHAP) to run extra outreach shifts, and has asked hospitals to limit overnight discharges when patients have no known place to go. A DHS official said the agency continues to use a by-name list of approximately 350 people "who are known to have underlying medical conditions, older adults, people who are at particular risk," and that outreach teams "are engaging trying to engage with them every 2 hours." The official added that involuntary removals are "DHS's policy to do them only in situations where there is no other option."
City leaders also postponed the annual HOPE count so outreach workers could focus on bringing people indoors rather than collecting data. The mayor framed the response as a public responsibility, saying "Extreme weather is not a personal failure, but it is a public responsibility," and urged New Yorkers to "stay indoors when you are able to, stay inside, and stay warm." Deputy Mayor Kirsten provided an update on street and sidewalk clearing, saying that "as of 06:15 this morning, 75% of the bus stops with bus shelters have been cleared" and that sanitation crews and DOT contractors continue manual clearing of bus stops, crosswalks and hydrants.
City officials said they are following up with people who used warming centers to find ongoing placements and that outreach teams revisit locations repeatedly to check on individuals. The DHS official said the most recent emergency sites were used to connect people to placements when possible but that investigations are ongoing into some recent deaths and the city would provide more information as it is available.