00:00Wait, there are nice offices in this building?
00:04A severe cold front continues to bear down on our city.
00:12Today is our 11th consecutive day of below freezing weather,
00:17and we could very well be in the middle of the longest period
00:20of consecutive sub-32 degree weather in our city's entire history.
00:25Without temperatures rising above freezing,
00:27snow has hardened into blocks of ice.
00:30But the greatest danger posed by this sustained cold
00:33is to vulnerable New Yorkers who remain exposed to the elements.
00:37As of this morning, 16 of our fellow New Yorkers have passed away outside
00:40during this brutal stretch of cold.
00:43In 13 of these cases, preliminary findings indicate that hypothermia played a role,
00:47and three of these deaths appear to be overdose deaths.
00:50We await final results from the medical examiner's office
00:53and will inform New Yorkers as we learn more.
00:55Each of these lives lost is a tragedy.
00:58My heart was at the family of those mourning their loved ones.
01:02We are continuing to do everything in our power
01:04to get every New Yorker into a shelter where they will be warm.
01:07The cold is showing no signs of stopping, so neither will this city's efforts.
01:12From information available now,
01:14it appears that none of the individuals who have died outside
01:16were living in homeless encampments at the time of their death.
01:19New York remains in a code blue.
01:21If you see someone in need, please call 311.
01:25Outreach workers and first responders from the NYPD and FDNY will respond
01:29and get those New Yorkers the help that they need.
01:32Our outreach workers have only intensified their work
01:34to get homeless New Yorkers into shelter.
01:36We continue to operate warming sites and warming vehicles across the five boroughs.
01:41We have expanded shelter capacity, relaxed intake rules,
01:44and are working with our partners across the city to increase outreach.
01:48As of this morning, we have made more than 930 placements to shelters and safe havens.
01:53We have also involuntarily transported 18 New Yorkers
01:56who were determined to be a danger to themselves or to others.
02:00We have expanded our mobile warming units to a fleet of 20,
02:03which are moving throughout the city, equipped with clinical staff,
02:05to treat New Yorkers' needs and get them off the street.
02:08If you are hearing me speak right now and you are not sure if you will be looked after,
02:12please, let me make myself clear.
02:15Every single person will be cared for.
02:17No one will be turned away.
02:19As part of that commitment, we have added 50 new single-room shelter units
02:23for those who are uncomfortable with other forms of shelter
02:25because we want every New Yorker to know that shelter is there if they need it.
02:29NYPD has been a part of the outreach efforts throughout Code Blue.
02:39They have been a part of it.
02:40DSS workers have been a part of it.
02:41It's been a whole-of-government approach.
02:43And I think the primary issue here is the weather that we are experiencing.
02:50We are speaking about already one of the coldest periods in New York City history
02:55and what could end up being the coldest period in New York City history.
03:00And what these city workers have done, no matter whether they're DSS, NYPD, any other agency,
03:06they have done the work of reaching out to New Yorkers to make now nearly 1,000 placements.
03:10And we know that that is work that has to continue.
03:13That is work that we will not rest so long as this cold continues
03:17and so long as there are New Yorkers who are outside.
03:20And I think that, you know, yesterday when I was at that safe haven,
03:25I spoke to a number of New Yorkers who were finding warmth within it.
03:29And some of them had come in the night before.
03:31Some of them, you know, I met a man who told me that he had been living in an airport for five months
03:38before he was brought to this shelter.
03:40The conditions that people are living through,
03:43they are conditions that none of us should be comfortable with.
03:46And so we're going to use every single resource at our disposal
03:48to continue to build on this work, to open up more shelters,
03:52open up more beds and ensure that New Yorkers are staying warm.
03:58I think, to be very clear just at the top of this,
04:03the deaths that we have seen, at this time it does not appear there is any relationship
04:07between encampments and what we've seen with these 16 New Yorkers.
04:10The policy on encampments, we have long said that it was a failure to pursue a policy
04:17in the manner that the previous administration did.
04:19And we've said that it's a failure because of its having only connected three New Yorkers
04:24with permanent housing over the course of 365 days.
04:27So our policies will continue on the same timeline as they were prior.
04:32However, instead of looking to just push New Yorkers from one encampment to another part of this city,
04:37we're going to look to emphasize the services that we can connect those New Yorkers with.
04:41And given the rising death count, do you think you're going to have to open more of those?
04:46It is primarily due to the weather, whereas typically after snowfall of any kind,
04:52rising temperatures would assist in the melting of that snow.
04:56Instead, what we are all experiencing is a cold that is continuing at a record pace, frankly.
05:06And what that has meant is that the entirety of the city's response is up to the city workers themselves.
05:13And what they've been doing is an incredible job.
05:16However, it is a job that must continue.
05:18And it is also a job that has required us to go beyond the typical.
05:22What I mean by that is that we might typically have just sanitation workers doing a lot of this work.
05:28Right now, we have 2,500 sanitation workers working 12-hour shifts, each 12-hour shift, rather.
05:34And then we now have up to 1,500 additional workers, many of them coming from separate city agencies
05:39who are supplementing that work, especially when it comes to bus stops and crosswalks.
05:46And at this time, we're seeing that that's going to continue.
05:50What I'm thankful to see is that the pace of cleanup is increasing.
05:54In order to get people to convince them to come in.
05:57Sanitation is currently running about 24 hours behind on trash collection.
06:07I am, you know, I know that they are working with everything that they have to come up to speed.
06:14And that will continue to be a focus for us.
06:16Because what we want is a city where New Yorkers can continue to return back to their lives as they were.
06:21We know that this cold is not going to help us.
06:23We know that this is going to continue for the next few days.
06:26We know that this is going to continue for the next few days.
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