January 1, NYC Homeless Deaths Rise as Mayor Axes Sweeps

Wyatt’s Take

• Mayor Mamdani stopped winter homeless sweeps in New York City.
• Nineteen people died from cold during the recent freeze.
• Many say Mamdani is focused on lawsuits and events, not saving lives.

After Mayor Zohran Mamdani ended the city’s long-time policy of clearing homeless encampments during cold spells, nineteen people froze to death on the streets of New York.

For nearly three decades, police carried out Code Blue sweeps to get homeless folks off sidewalks when temperatures dropped. Mamdani dropped the policy this winter, calling it a move toward “the warmth of collectivism.”

“Read this & let it sink in. 13 days into this cold spell & Zohran Mamdani was letting the homeless sleep under the Manhattan Bridge,” one critic posted online.

Instead of helping the homeless, Mamdani has been tied up suing a storage company, recruiting lifeguards for summer, and holding events so people can complain about landlords.

“New Yorkers are being squeezed everywhere, even just to store their stuff,” Mamdani said in a statement about suing a storage business.

He has also invited people to share complaints about landlords at city events.

While city officials host meetings, residents say conditions keep getting worse—filthy streets, rising crime, and the city’s most vulnerable dying from the cold.

“Abysmal and tragically deadly constituent services from NYC. Inexcusable,” shared one user online.

For close to three weeks, snow, ice, and freezing weather hammered New York. Many say city and state governments were slow to react, leaving the homeless to fend for themselves in deadly conditions.

Read the full story here

Wyatt Matters

This is what happens when leaders forget about everyday folks struggling to get by. Policy decisions made far from Main Street can mean life or death for the people left out in the cold. In times like these, our sense of community and common sense should lead the way.