Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams released the following statement in response to the overburdening of and inadequate responses to shortages at funeral homes and morgues amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The stories and images we have witnessed from funeral homes and morgues in recent days and weeks are deeply disturbing to behold and traumatizing for families already afflicted with grief. An inability to responsibly and respectfully attend to the deceased and support their families only compounds that tragedy. Dignity does not end in death, and our responsibility to uphold that dignity does not diminish, even in a pandemic.
"The inability to do so, particularly in low-income communities, often communities of more color, represents the reality that funeral homes and morgues cannot meet the burden of this crisis with the current policies and resources provided. As with other shortages, it's critical to move resources to the communities hardest hit and facing the greatest need - both as an immediate response and to proactively ease the mounting burden. We can't lose sight of the humanity of loss in this crisis. Nor can we fail to meet the needs of families struggling to bury their loved ones and manage their estates, restricted by the capacity of our systems and struggling with unimaginable grief. Fatalities aren't a number, they are our fellow New Yorkers, and we need the city and state to react with shared empathy and urgency to meet this overwhelming level of loss and pain."
Last week, Public Advocate Williams called on the state government to amend restrictions which make it difficult for grieving families to claim their deceased loved ones who have died in the COVID-19 pandemic. In a letter to New York State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, the Public Advocate called for measures that would better equip hospitals, morgues and funeral homes with the resources they need to help meet the unique and challenging nature of this crisis in some of the city's hardest hit communities.
The full letter is below and can be found here.
Dear Commissioner Zucker:
New York City is in the midst of a public health crisis unseen in a century, placing stresses on our systems in ways we never considered. Specifically, I write in regard to the rapid influx of COVID-19 fatalities threatening to overwhelm the limited capacity of our hospitals and morgues. A contributing factor to this issue is that only licensed funeral directors are allowed to transport the deceased.
Considering the unique nature of this crisis, this regulation appears to do more harm than good by preventing our hospitals and morgues from releasing custody of the deceased in a timely manner. As you may be aware, an inability to perform this timely processing has led to troubling mass burials of "unclaimed" bodies on Hart Island.
I believe an appropriate solution to this problem would be to loosen current requirements for removal of remains that are currently dictated by Section 4144 of New York State Law. This law, which requires that all bodies be removed by a licensed funeral director, should be temporarily exempted or amended to allow any paid employee of a funeral home to perform body removal - vastly increasing funeral homes' capacity to empty our city's overcrowded hospitals and morgues. With this change in place, more families would be granted the dignity of giving their loved ones an individual burial, and strain upon our hospitals and morgues would be reduced.
I hope to see expeditious action taken to alleviate this growing problem across our state. For any questions or further discussion, please contact First Deputy Public Advocate for Policy Nick E. Smith, at nsmith@advocate.nyc.gov. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Jumaane D. Williams
Public Advocate for the City of New York
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