Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pick for top Big Apple lawyer on Wednesday praised the administration’s “extraordinarily high-level” handling of the current deadly cold snap — even as the death toll climbed to 17 people.
Testifying before the City Council’s Rules Committee for his approval to become the city’s corporation counsel, Steve Banks was pressed by Speaker Julie Menin on how he would advise the fashionably-focused mayor during future extreme weather events.
“What I have seen is exactly what should be happening, which is adhering to the state law to evaluate people, bring them inside when the state law permits people to be brought inside, continually to engage people,” said Banks, who served as the former Department of Social Services commissioner under Mayor Bill de Blasio.
He added that the city is “redoubling efforts, 24/7, to engage people and bring them inside” with temperatures set to dip below freezing for the umpteenth day this winter.
Banks, however, rejected a broad removal policy when Menin asked if the city could relocate people “in the interest of health and safety” during extreme cold, particularly those with serious mental illness.
“I think the state law doesn’t permit that kind of blanket approach. It requires an individualized evaluation, and that is exactly what I see being implemented right now,” Banks said.
“That requires nursing evaluations, that requires clinical evaluations. And that’s what I see is going on right now at, quite frankly, an extraordinarily high level.”
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who took office just last month, has gotten blasted for saying city workers would only force people indoors “as a last resort.”
Banks acknowledged that people also died on the streets when he served as social services commissioner. Seventeen people have perished outside amid bone-chilling temps since Jan. 24 — 13 of hypothermia and three overdoses. Details surrounding the latest death, confirmed Wednesday, were not clear.
“A single death is just tragic. I experienced deaths on the street when I was the Commissioner of Social Services,” he said.
His testimony comes after the de Blasio administration, with Banks at the helm of DSS, for years pursued an aggressive campaign to clear street encampments and move homeless people out of public spaces and into shelters during the COVID-19 crisis.
In a May 5, 2020, briefing, de Blasio called street encampments “absolutely unacceptable” and said, “If we see any encampment developed anywhere in New York City, we’re taking it down period,” as the city continued encampment sweeps despite federal COVID guidance discouraging the practice. Days later, video showed shelters overflowing with homeless people.
The full Council is expected to vote on Banks’ nomination on Feb. 12.