Homeless people sleeping on a subway prepare in New York on Jan. 13, 2025.
Picture by Dean Moses
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There’s a strategy to finish road homelessness in New York Metropolis and restore security within the subways, Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander stated on Monday.
Lander, a contender within the 2025 race for NYC mayor, unveiled his blueprint on Jan. 13 for making subways and streets safer for New Yorkers referred to as “Safer for All: A Plan to End Street Homelessness for People with Serious Mental Illness in NYC.”
Taking a “housing first” strategy, the comptroller’s plan goals to offer supportive housing, in addition to much-needed providers and therapy, to New Yorkers residing on the streets that suffer from extreme psychological sickness.
The report follows a sequence of high-profile, violent crimes that plagued the town over the earlier month, together with the dying of 57-year-old Debrina Kawam, who was burned alive on a Coney Island F prepare on Dec. 22, 2024. The suspect, Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, was remanded on first-degree homicide fees.
The case make clear the town’s homelessness drawback, in addition to associated crises centered round psychological sickness and substance abuse.
Taking a “housing first” strategy, Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander’s plan goals to offer supportive housing, in addition to much-needed providers and therapy, to New Yorkers residing on the streets that suffer from extreme psychological sickness.Picture by Dean Moses
‘We know what we’re doing’
In rolling out his plan Monday, Lander additionally highlighted what he referred to as shortcomings on the difficulty from Mayor Eric Adams, whom he’s difficult within the June Democratic main.
“The report looks at failures in the current system,” the town’s prime cash man stated. “Building on a series of audits and investigations that my office has conducted in recent years, which show that despite spending billions of dollars on outreach, on jails, on police overtime, on shelters, on emergency hospitalizations, despite all of that, the Adams administration has failed to effectively coordinate a continuum of care that will get people the care they need and into stable housing.”
Requested to answer Lander’s plan Monday at an unrelated Metropolis Corridor press convention, Hizzoner stated that his administration will “re-double down” on its efforts to fight homelessness “with $650 million” in funding. Adams additionally famous that mere funding just isn’t sufficient to unravel the issue, and that usually, when the town lends a serving to hand to road homeless people with psychological well being points, they don’t all the time settle for it.
“When you’re dealing with people with severe mental health illness and you tell them you need to come in and get care, do you know how hard that is?” Adams stated. “He needs to factor that into his plan. When he reaches out and says ‘I’m gonna lift a finger for you,’ and the person dealing with severe mental health illness gives him the finger, then he needs to talk about how he’s going to make it happen.”
The mayor took a swipe at Lander’s suggestion that the administration was failing the homeless, including, “We know what we’re doing.”
“The stats are there. We’ve proven it,” stated Adams. “So he can roll out all of the plans he wants, our success is clear and we’re gonna continue to deal with this national problem that we are facing.”
Mayor Eric Adams gestures whereas talking with reporters on Jan. 13, 2025 at Metropolis Corridor.Picture by Lloyd Mitchell
What the Lander plan does
So how does Lander plan to unravel the town’s age-old drawback of psychological sickness and homelessness on New York Metropolis’s streets? By cross-agency cooperation, the comptroller stated that choices for each voluntary and mandated therapy and outcomes-based investments within the psychological well being system must be expanded.
Lander stated specializing in housing first, together with supportive care, was profitable greater than a decade in the past in ending road homelessness for veterans in NYC.
The comptroller’s report estimates that some 2,000 individuals with severe psychological sickness at the moment skilled unsheltered homelessness — or reside in metropolis hospitals or jails who’re more likely to return to the streets. Lander famous that, within the latter circumstance, judges can not refer individuals to alternative-to-incarceration packages that haven’t any obtainable slots.
Jails launch individuals with psychological sickness to the town streets, regardless that they’re homeless and eligible for supportive housing, he added.
“This keeps people with serious mental illness cycling from from subway to street, from hospital to jail and back again,” Lander stated.
Supportive housing doesn’t imply city-run shelters, the comptroller insisted — though he confused the shelter program stays vital. His “housing first” contains specializing in discovering housing for road homeless by SRO (single-resident occupancy) items, vouchers and “service dollars to get people off the street and into a home with wraparound support services, including healthcare workers to ensure patients are getting counseling, medication and other treatment they require.”
Lander believes his plan is not going to solely adequately resolve the road homelessness disaster, but additionally assist make the town’s subways safer — and reinstate rider confidence.
“New Yorkers are stressed out about the lack of safety on the subway and out streets, and a huge amount of that is mentally ill homeless folks who, in some cases, become a real dangers, as we’ve seen in recent weeks,” Lander stated.
