The death count in NYC amid the frigid conditions of the past few weeks jumped Tuesday with city officials acknowledging seven additional deaths, the news coming after the Mamdani administration came under fire for its response to the the freezing weather at a Council oversight hearing.
The seven new deaths all occurred at private residences, coming on top of the 18 New Yorkers found dead outside since the city’s brutal streak of Code Blue nights began. The specific circumstances of those seven deaths were not immediately available, though the mayor’s office confirmed that hypothermia was determined to be the cause of death for all of them.
Earlier in the day, Council members grilled administration officials over their outreach to homeless New Yorkers during the cold spell.
“Eighteen New Yorkers have lost their lives since the city declared Code Blue. These deaths are not inevitable,” said Speaker Julie Menin. “They are the result of gaps in outreach, shelter capacity, mental health services.”
Department of Social Services Commissioner Molly Wasow Park said at a City Council oversight hearing that the hypothermia-related deaths this winter for homeless New Yorkers are likely to be worse than in typical years.
“This is gonna be a year that is outside the norm, which is tragic, and I feel that every day,” Park said during the hearing. “So I think we will be looking at what we can do differently. Absolutely.”
John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit
Molly Wasow Park, Acting Commissioner of the New York City Department of Social Services. (John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit)
Park, who put in her resignation a day earlier, said that a “handful” of those found dead outside were homeless at the time of their death. She declined to give a specific number, but said that city officials said that around 10 to 20 homeless people typically die outdoors of hypothermia during a typical year.
Despite the death toll, Park said she was “proud” of her department’s response to the frigid weather.
“What I outlined in my formal testimony would not have been possible without the creative problem-solving and the operational skills of the DHS team — that doesn’t mean that these deaths are not a tragedy,” she added.
The news of the additional seven deaths was first reported by the New York Times.
The medical examiner’s office found that 15 of the 18 deaths were due to hypothermia, with the causes of the other three deaths still not yet determined. The mayor’s office has said that three of the deaths were drug overdoses.
In comparison, in 2023, the last year for which data is available, 29 people died due to extreme cold, while 52 people died in 2022 and 34 in 2021, according to Health Department data. In 2018, the last time the city experienced such a severe cold stretch, 21 people died due to the cold.
