NYC must check on at-risk older adults during heat waves and cold snaps

Older people face more danger in extreme heat and cold. This law requires New York City to check on older adults who are most at risk. When the city issues a cold weather alert, an extreme heat warning, or a heat emergency, the Department for the Aging (NYC Aging) must check on adults 60 and older whom it knows lack enough resources and support at home. Most checks will be phone calls, but NYC Aging will visit in person when its rules call for it, and checks should be in the person’s preferred language when possible.

Each check asks set questions about how the person is doing, records whether they seem OK, notes the conditions in their home, and gives them safety information. The law does not create a public application; it covers people NYC Aging already knows meet its standard. NYC Aging already made some wellness checks during Code Blue cold weather. The law makes the checks a requirement and adds heat emergencies. The department must have its plan running by Feb. 1, 2027, and must report on it to the Council by March 1, 2027.

Council Member Elsie Encarnación sponsored the bill. The Committee on Aging, chaired by Council Member Susan Zhuang, amended and approved it, and the full Council passed it 49–0 on July 16, 2026. Mayor Zohran Mamdani returned it unsigned, and it became Local Law 130 of 2026 on Aug. 18.