Dalton addresses Intro 897 on severe winter weather outreach

I will now turn to the legislation being discussed today.

Introduction 897.

sponsored by Councilmember Feliz would require best efforts for regular outreach work engagement every two hours between 8 p.m.

And 8 a.m.

During severe winter weather responses.

Coordinating with sister agencies on transportation, warming buses, warming centers, harm reduction facilities, as well as requiring four reports, one report prior to November, December, January, and February each winter on plans to implement the severe weather response.

We appreciate Council's focus on severe winter weather responses to ensure vulnerable New Yorkers are kept safe during the severe winter weather events.

We share this concern and focus.

Our severe weather response strategy is developed to incorporate lessons learned from prior Code Blue and Code Red responses.

The flexibility to implement lessons learned and revised strategies is critical to keeping New Yorkers safe during severe weather.

We hope to have substantive discussions with the sponsoring council to consider amendments to take into account a more comprehensive understanding of our current approach for Code Blue and the ongoing need to remain flexible when preparing for a severe weather event.

We have no concerns with the bill's proposal for regular reporting on Code Blue responses, but many of the other elements of the proposed legislation would require discussion.

The current language is based on DHS's previous approach, which centered on a list of known vulnerable clients who outreach teams would check on repeatedly during the weather event.

This is no longer the centerpiece of our response.

Every year, we will still identify the most vulnerable people on the street and make sure each one has a safety plan before winter.