They had shelter from the storm – and still died.
A tragic “handful” of the 18 New Yorkers who perished outdoors in the sub-Antarctic chill gripping the Big Apple had homeless shelter services lined up by the city, officials revealed Tuesday.
But they never reached those shelters, Molly Wasow Park, the outgoing commissioner for the city’s Department of Social Services, testified during a marathon City Council hearing over the deaths.
“There were people who had active shelter placements, but they didn’t arrive at the active shelter placement,” Park said.
The failure to ferry those New Yorkers into shelter adds to the blizzard of shortcomings from Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s fledgling administration since Winter Storm Fern dumped a foot of snow on the city and temperatures plunged deep below freezing.
Park only vaguely acknowledged a “handful” of New Yorkers who died had access to shelters, and DSS officials didn’t respond to a request for the exact tally.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin kicked off the hearing by listing several deaths, including Frederick Jones, 67, a formerly homeless man found dead on Jan. 24 — about a mile from the Midtown supportive housing apartment building where he lived.
“These New Yorkers should be alive today,” she said.
Jones’ death came after the city’s emergency responders had received three calls about him wandering the frozen streets hours before his death, Gothamist first reported.
He waived off help when cops responded to the first call, according to the report. They couldn’t find him for the second call.
The fateful final call came after several customers and workers at D’Agostino supermarket along Third Avenue near East 35th Street saw Jones splayed in the snow with his arms open, with a bottle of liquor nearby.
“He was stiff,” Tony, a food delivery worker, recalled Tuesday. “He was literally a stiff man…
“I said to my coworker, ‘I think this guy froze to death.’”
Jones was roughly a mile from his apartment building run by Breaking Ground, an organization that provides supportive and affordable housing for homeless New Yorkers.
He had been under an Adult Protective Services guardianship since he had trouble paying his rent in 2022, Gothamist reported.
Wally, a nearby doorman, also saw Jones motionless on the ground. He’s haunted by his assumption that Jones was merely drunk.
“Now, I wish looking back, I should have made a phone call. I should have made a phone call,” Wally said.
“Who is to say if I called would that have helped. He was probably dead by then.”
— Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy
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