The warmth of collectivism already has a body count.
New York City officials are facing renewed criticism over how the Mamdani Administration is handling outreach to unsheltered people during extreme cold, as the city’s winter death toll climbed to 18 and questions mounted over when — and whether — authorities can compel people indoors during “Code Blue” conditions.
Brian Stettin, a former senior adviser in the Adams administration, said the city should treat severe cold as an immediate life-safety emergency.
“When a person is in imminent danger, there is no debate. Whatever ideological divides we have should not have any impact on these policies during a ‘Code Blue,’” Stettin told the New York Post.
Stettin pointed to a homeless woman seen sheltering outside NYU Langone Hospital during the deep freeze, arguing the city should “be doing everything they can to get them inside,” and that street-level response requires a visible police presence when conditions pose “an imminent threat to life or safety.”
City officials, meanwhile, have emphasized that involuntary removals are treated as a “last resort,” generally limited to cases where a person is deemed a danger to themselves or others — a standard the mayor has publicly cited in recent remarks.
The dispute has played out as extreme cold gripped the region, with city leaders declaring “Code Blue” measures intended to expand access to shelter and emergency warming options.
Critics also contrasted New York’s approach with actions taken in Baltimore, where Mayor Brandon Scott said late last month that police were directed to get unhoused people off the streets during dangerous cold — even if they refused services — calling the weather a “life-and-death issue.”
“That direction order came from me because we cannot allow folks to be out in this kind of weather,” Scott said.
City Hall press secretary Dora Pekec said the Mamdani administration has not changed any Adams-era policies governing removals. But another source described a very different street-level reality.
The Sanitation Department, the source said, is “tidying up” — but has been explicitly told not to remove homeless encampments.
That would be a departure from the approach under Adams, the source said.
More over at The New York Post:
Critics blast Mamdani’s ‘infuriating’ refusal to budge on involuntary removal of homeless New Yorkers https://t.co/0z4EGXabAC pic.twitter.com/TFUfYRAAzY
— New York Post (@nypost) February 10, 2026