NYC Mayor Mamdani: Most of the Homeless Who Died During the Last Blizzard Actually Died of an Overdose

EXCERPT:

MAMDANI: “So, as of now, we have no deaths reported from this blizzard, from being outside or in a public area. And we have also been looking to utilize every single method of outreach that we have. We have more than 500 homeless outreach workers who have been traversing the five boroughs looking to connect homeless New Yorkers with services and support. And what we’ve also learned is the tools that were effective over the course of the prolonged cold period, again, a historic period of subfreezing conditions, those are ones we’ve employed from the very first day of our response to this one. I’ll give you one example. A number of those New Yorkers who lost their lives, the preliminary indications came that it was from an overdose-related death. And so, we worked with our overdose prevention centers to keep them open, not just during the weekday hours that they would typically have, but over the course of the weekend nights. So they are open not just last night, but also tonight, and that has been critical in saving New Yorkers’ lives.”