On the corner of 23rd Street and 5th Avenue in Manhattan beneath the landmark Flatiron building, two workers from the Bridge, an outreach non-profit, were hoping to help a number of homeless men seek shelter from the dangerous, freezing temperatures gripping the city.
It is a matter of life and death as New York endures one of its longest stretches of subzero cold since 1960. Seventeen people have died, with at least 13 deaths linked to hypothermia. The city estimates that 800 homeless people have been moved inside, with Zohran Mamdani, the mayor, saying recently “we have been taking every possible measure to get New Yorkers inside. This has been a full all-hands-on-deck approach.”
On Friday, as the temperatures were set to plunge again, Mamdani said the days ahead could be “too cold and too dangerous to survive”. So far, 27 people have been forced inside after being judged to be a danger to themselves or others – a determination made based on their clothing.
But the work to prevent deaths is hard, battling against not just the frigid conditions, but also stretched resources and – often – mental illness.
A man who said he was the half brother of Harry Belafonte, the actor, as well as a number of other famous people was approached by the Bridge workers. If the purpose of the encounter was to get him into one of dozens of long-term shelters, safe havens or drop-in shelters and other facilities the city supports, it did not go well – suggestions are often considered threatening and experienced outreach workers know better than to make them.
But no one is giving up.
“You’ve got to have patience,” said Giovanny Martinez, 29, a Bridge volunteer. “You have to see them more than once, more than twice, it might even take 10 times for them to even acknowledge you. On the first encounter, you just need to show your face with a ‘hey, how are you?’”
A bag containing hand-warmers, socks, toothpaste and brush, soap, some snacks, an emergency blanket, can help, Martinez says. “You have to give them something. When they see that is when they open up the most. It’s kind of like a mind-game, a skill.”
It is subtle work. Dozens of words or phrases could be triggering, and even the suggestion of help from anyone in an official capacity, asking names or date of birth, can be reminiscent of incarceration, criminal or psychiatric hospitalizations, or just being taken advantage of.
“It’s hard for them. I ask: ‘What’s you’re situation? Are you in shelter, are you homeless, are you hungry, do you need a shower?’ Then, maybe say: ‘hey, it’s fucking cold out here, let’s get you in somewhere.’”
New York City declared “Code Blue” on 19 January due to the severe cold. The declaration mandates that no one can be denied access to a shelter, police are unable to force people from sheltering in the subway system, and homeless outreach teams actively canvass the streets, focusing on vulnerable, unsheltered individuals. Non-emergency 311 calls are routed to emergency 911.
The bone-chilling temperatures have given Mamdani his first real test since taking office last month. Temperatures are not expected to rise above zero for another week, triggering a degree of chaos and discomfort across New York. But nowhere is the crisis more evident than among the city’s homeless population.
Mamdani ordered that homeless encampments across the city should not be torn down, setting off a political argument over individual rights, with one side arguing that leaving the meagre shelters in place could keep people staying in conditions they cannot be expected to survive, and the other saying that removing the encampments places them in greater danger.
“Being homeless shouldn’t be a death sentence,” said the Queens borough president, Donovan Richards, a Democrat who supported Mamdani last year. “You can’t let the people stay out there. These are people in crisis.”
The left-leaning Daily News argued that encampment sweeps under the previous mayor, Eric Adams, were “a critical tool in averting any more needless fatalities”. It added in an editorial: “There is nothing humane about letting people sleep in the street.”
None of those found dead so far were in encampments, Mamdani said this week.
One explanation is that the encampments function as informal social networks. “They see it as living off the grid and say they’d rather be out there,” says Martinez. “These encampments can look pretty warm – a bunch of cardboard boxes with blankets in between. I’ve see three encampments put together as one like a mansion.
“Where there’s a will there’s a way – and they will make it,” he adds. “But going to a shelter you risk losing all your stuff.”
Some homeless people may not be willing to go into shelters, which are often dangerous. Others cannot show paperwork, or they are inadmissible because they are using drugs. For outreach workers hoping to help them, even the eligibility hurdles relaxed during Code Blue have not been enough to prevent deaths from exposure.
The city is trying a new approach, deploying charter buses as warming drop-ins across the the city. On Friday, a bus had 14 homeless people in it by dawn. In theory, they act as an overflow for nearby shelters. Since many do not want to enter the shelters, the buses are an acceptable alternative.
“One time they stole my bag in the shelter, so I don’t use the shelters,” said a man who gave his name as John. “I don’t want to go in them.” Plus, he said, “the bus is warmer.”
A city worker who had volunteered to work with the effort said the city was “at least trying to mitigate the cold and the circumstances”. But they acknowledged how difficult it was to convince people to go to the shelters or drop-in centers given how many are sheltering in the subway system.
“It’s depressing to see that we are accepting these circumstances in the richest city in the country,” they said.
Vicki Robles, executive assistant vice-president for community support at the Bridge, said the city and the state were “putting every possible resource into reaching everyone that needs to be reached”. Robles said when coming across people who refuse to go inside, clearly have a mental health diagnosis and are not doing well, the non-profit can escalate the incident to 911 to get the person safely someplace.
“When it’s this temperature a blanket or gloves really doesn’t do much good,” says Sheryl Silver, chief program officer at the organization. “By allowing more people to come inside by reducing the rules and eligibility criteria they seem to be completely focused on getting people inside in and off the streets in whatever way they can.”
The new mayor is probably well aware that trash collection and blizzard response errors are the hills that several predecessors’ public popularity have collapsed over.
Mamdani has asked New Yorkers to do their part in the crisis. “As the city does its part, I’m asking you, New York City, to do yours,” he said Thursday. “If you see someone out in the cold, call 311, so we can get them help.”
Back on 23rd Street, where the wind around the Flatiron renders almost any woolen protection to cold useless, outreach worker Marcos Bello says simply: “You have to engage. Try to start a relationship. If you don’t have that it can be very complicated. You have to be a role model.”
Martinez added: “These people are on the streets all the time, with millions of people passing by looking at them like they’re trash. It gets pretty crazy out there on the street. That’s where we come in. We try to humanize them, and talk to them.”
Another of the Bridge’s team, Zayra, 28, put it simply: “We’re cold, so you can’t imagine what the people out here, living out here, are experiencing.”
