A year ago today, Mayor Eric Adams unveiled a controversial order that would entrust city-led specialized intervention teams with the involuntary hospitalization of people deemed to be dealing with mental health problems too severe to meet basic living standards.
The plan centered around a more expansive interpretation of state law, allowing a person to be hospitalized voluntarily if they were a danger to themselves or others.
What you need to know
- A year ago, Mayor Eric Adams unveiled a controversial ordinance that allowed city-led groups to voluntarily hospitalize people with severe mental health problems and unable to “meet basic needs.”
- At a news conference Wednesday, Adams said the plan was working as intended, despite criticism from opponents who said it could make homeless people and people with mental health problems commit crimes.
- Fifty-four people on the city’s list of the 100 hardest-to-reach New Yorkers living on city streets are now receiving treatment in supportive settings or hospitals, Adams said.
Critics immediately pushed back, saying the mayors new policy could criminalize homeless people and those with mental health problems. However, the Adams administration said on Wednesday that the policy is working as intended.
A year later, we stand here and are proud to show early results that our plan is working, Adams said at a news conference. We have provided care and support to a significant number of those in need, helping them recover and reunite with family and friends.
Fifty-four people on the city’s list of the 100 hardest-to-reach New Yorkers living on city streets are now staying in assisted living settings or receiving treatment in hospitals, Adams said, representing a 145% increase from the previous year.
People were on the list for a variety of reasons, including mental health problems or substance abuse problems.
Brian Stettin, City Hall’s senior adviser on severe mental illness, said a significant number of those 54 people entered the system through voluntary discharge. Fourteen of the 54 are currently hospitalized, with the goal of moving them to less restrictive support settings, he said.
“We wanted to zero out of the 100 chronically unsheltered people who are dealing with mental health issues so severe that they can’t take care of themselves,” the mayor said. It became abundantly clear to New Yorkers that we will not allow people to live dignifiedly on our streets in inclement weather and in the normal course of business.
An NYPD official said that on average, police officers take 137 New Yorkers off the street each week. That total also includes people in private homes and/or shelters, according to City Hall.
This point about the data is very important, and we’re excited that this administration is now going to keep the data in a way that we can drill down on these answers, said Anne Williams-Isom, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services.
When asked if the city is tracking the results of the evacuees, Adams deferred to Stettin, who said officials are monitoring them very closely.
Officials emphasized that the evictions are one tool in an overall plan to help rough sleepers.
Make no mistake about it, as with every person, hospitalization is not the end of it. Stettin said it was a means to an end. They were working really hard with each of those people to try to get them back into a community placement.
As part of the update, Adams announced additional efforts the city is taking to help those struggling, such as increasing psychiatric beds by up to 1,000 and ramping up training for doctors and first responders.
But some statistics, including the demographics of those voluntarily removed, are still not available. Adams also acknowledged that the city previously did not track involuntary hospitalizations.
Critics on Wednesday took aim at the mayors’ victory lap, pointing out that the lack of data raises transparency and accountability issues.
In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which has previously criticized the plan, said the Adams administration had not provided any data. [the plans] Implementation, including whether people of color are disproportionately targeted.
Forcing vulnerable people into treatment was an old, failed strategy that Mayor Adams announced a year ago, Lieberman said. Despite mayors’ victory laps, a policy that criminalizes New Yorkers who experience mental health challenges and homelessness won’t help.
One New Yorker who has been helped is Terry Brown. NY1 first caught up with him in July, when he was receiving a housing assistance voucher known as CityFHEPS. He lives in a safe haven in the Bronx while he looks for permanent housing.
Brown lived on the streets for years, struggling before seeking help from homeless advocate Shams DaBaron.
I did not take the steps I was told to take. “When Shams sat down with me and told me, ‘Here, man, take that step, don’t be afraid,'” Brown said Wednesday. You need to stop worrying about what outsiders think, how people look at you, or where you stand. Take that step man, that’s the path to success.
Separately, Adams said the city has been able to connect 6,100 New Yorkers to housing under the Subway Safety Plan.
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Image Source : ny1.com