Recent tragic incidents of violence on the subway have drawn national attention to the crisis of mental illness and homelessness facing our city. About 2,000 people are falling through cracks, cycling from street to subway to hospital to jail, and back again — too often becoming a danger to themselves, or to others.
There’s a solution to end street homelessness for people with serious mental illness that’s working, right under Mayor Adams’ nose — but that he refuses to expand.
As the Daily News wrote last week, a “Housing First” pilot program was implemented by the Adams administration on a small scale. Housing First places people directly from the street into housing with services, and has a track record of remarkable success, keeping people stably housed 70% to 90% of the time, as seen in cities like Salt Lake City, Houston, and Denver.
Volunteers of America launched a “Street to Housing” pilot program here in NYC in November 2022 — and it’s working. Of the 130 people enrolled, 109 (84%) remain in their apartments, and almost all of the rest have moved on to other housing.
Yet the mayor refuses to expand it. It’s like he’s committed to putting “housing last.” Why?
Adams’ spokesperson chalked up the decision to abandon the program to “bureaucratic roadblocks.” But of course, the mayor’s administration is the bureaucracy. In other words, the mayor refuses to tackle street homelessness because it’s too hard.
Leading can be hard — and when you’re in charge, you sometimes have to do the hard thing, to clear the bureaucratic roadblock yourself. That’s the true test of leadership.
Adams’ spokesperson continued, saying the mayor “remain[s] focused on pragmatic, sensible solutions to homelessness rather than pithy campaign slogans and overly simplistic approaches.”
Unfortunately, what’s coming out of this current administration is far from pragmatic or sensible. Despite billions of dollars spent on outreach, police overtime, city jails, shelters, and emergency hospitalization, the Adams administration has failed to keep our streets and subways safe.
My office conducted an audit that found the Adams administration’s “homeless sweeps” failed to meet their stated goal of reducing homelessness: out of 2,308 people forcibly removed in the sweeps, just three people secured permanent housing. More than 90% just moved to another spot on the street the very same night. Pragmatic? Sensible?
Another audit from my office found that the city’s Intensive Mobile Treatment program is beset by gaps in oversight and declining success at placing people in stable housing.
This is a solvable problem. There are approximately 2,000 people with serious mental illness who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Meanwhile, there are more than 2,500 units of supportive housing sitting vacant. But it will take better leadership.
Just last month, I released a plan, “Safer for All,” to effectively end street homelessness for people with serious mental illness. At 75 pages long, it’s not a “pithy slogan” or “overly simplistic,” but it’s definitely more pragmatic than what Adams has been doing.
At the heart of the plan is this “Housing First” approach that Adams so bizarrely rejects, which has proven effective at connecting people to stable housing with mental health and social services in cities around the country.
Through more effective management and coordination from City Hall, and by utilizing those vacant units for a Housing First approach, we can get people off the street and directly into stable housing with wraparound services.
To be clear: in some cases, involuntary hospitalization and secure detention are needed.
So it doesn’t help that the Adams administration has also failed to deliver on 360 secure therapeutic beds promised in 2019 — for people in DOC custody who require hospital-level care — that are years behind schedule and, even once finished, will just scratch the surface of the need.
Or that cuts made by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo eliminated more than 1,000 inpatient psychiatric beds, and have made it far harder to get treatment.
That’s why my plan supports increased flexibility from Albany for involuntary hospitalization, and includes expanded options for both voluntary and mandated treatment, including mental health courts.
In order for people to feel safe again in our city, City Hall cannot keep sweeping people from subway to street to hospital to jail — and then right back again.
The mayor can’t keep putting housing last, and then blaming his own bureaucracy. We need new leadership at City Hall that puts housing first, overcomes bureaucratic delays, and delivers the results New Yorkers are craving — a city that’s safer for all.
No more excuses.
Lander is the city comptroller and a Democratic candidate for mayor.