Critics push Mamdani, NYC to do more to force homeless into shelters after 10 die in deep freeze

At least six New Yorkers found dead outdoors during the city’s Arctic deep freeze were homeless, Mayor Zohran Mamdani revealed Wednesday — as critics called on him to “step up” and take action.Some advocates and local pols said the city needed to do more to force homeless individuals into shelters — though Mamdani has called that a “last resort” and ordered his administration to stop clearing tent encampments in the five boroughs.“I don’t care what your ideology is,” former city Comptroller Scott Stringer argued.“When it’s 7 degrees, you get everyone in a safe place.”The twice-mayoral candidate said there should be more alarm over the grim body count — as one homeless advocate said he “couldn’t remember” the last time so many people succumbed to the cold of the Big Apple.“If there were 10 shooting deaths there would be a mass mobilization,” Stringer told The Post.Coalition For The Homeless executive director Dave Giffen said that the death toll was nearly unprecedented.“I’ve lived in New York City all my life and I can’t remember a time when so many people have died from a winter storm in such a short period of time, it’s absolutely tragic,” Giffen said Wednesday.Past city leaders argued authorities should be showing tough love to the homeless — and not giving them a choice but to come inside.Ex-FDNY Commissioner Tom Van Essen said he would have directed firefighters and EMS workers to pick up homeless people and take them to a shelter during these unbearable conditions “whether they like it or not.”He blamed state lawmakers for refusing to make it easier to haul people off the streets for their own good.“We have many mentally ill people who are incarcerated at Rikers,” Van Essen told The Post.

“But we allow other mentally ill people to freeze to death?”In the most recent tally compiled by the city, there were 29 deaths tied to cold weather including the homeless in 2023.On average, there have been 27 c...