City workers and cops persuaded more than 100 homeless people to get off the street overnight into Sunday as the temperature plummeted below zero — but at least one man talked police into letting him stay.
The man, in his mid-50s, told The Post that he’s been living on Sixth Avenue near West 57th Street for three years and wasn’t about to let even a record-breaking deep freeze move him.
“This morning, the cops did come by,” said the man, who refused to give his name, as temps hit minus 1. “They did talk to me. They didn’t tell me I had to go.”
Meanwhile, Mayor de Blasio boasted that the city’s overnight outreach work was a success, saying that only one person had to be taken in against their will. His administration declined to provide details about the person.
The NYPD said officers use force only if people are emotionally disturbed or pose an “imminent danger’’ to themselves.
A City Hall spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail, “If the person is in a warm place and/or are dressed appropriately for the weather or is being rational and has his or her own plan to get inside etc. . . . then there’s no cause for removal.”
Gov. Cuomo signed an executive order in January that said police and social-service officials must move homeless people indoors when the temperature drops to 32 degrees or below.
De Blasio has said the order mirrors the city’s Code Blue program, which already attempts to move people inside in below-freezing weather.