Mayor Zohran Mamdani was absent Monday from the funeral for nine homeless New Yorkers who froze to death during last winter’s deep freeze—a deadly episode that became his first major test at City Hall.
Mamdani, who came under fire for his response to New York City’s homeless population living outdoors during the brutal cold snap, did not attend the service at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, where the unclaimed remains were honored.
“Now we know little of these nine neighbors, but we do know this—they are beloved,” the Rev. Mark Schultz said during the service.
“We speak the truth of their dignity,” Schultz added.
A small group of Good Samaritans pieced together Monday’s service for nine of the 18 homeless people found dead outdoors last winter.
Rhonda Roland Shearer, the founder of a nonprofit who helped organize the funeral, said she hoped the ceremony “will make everybody alert to prevent this again.”
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The organizers also kept the remains from being buried on Hart Island, the city’s potter’s field off the Bronx coast, allowing the nine victims to receive a proper farewell.
Mamdani’s absence was noticeable at the All Souls Day Mass. During last winter’s bone-chilling temperatures, he faced mounting calls to require homeless New Yorkers to move indoors for safety and warmth.
Although the mayor urged New Yorkers living outside to “come inside,” he continued to insist that involuntary removals from the cold be used only as a “last resort.”
Critics also condemned the administration’s troubled rollout of mobile warming centers, saying the sites were hard to locate and frequently were not operating where they were supposed to be.
“He knows this is coming and more deaths are coming unless he changes his approach,” Nicole Gellas Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute told The Post at the time.
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.