Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday unveiled a five-year, $650 million plan to address homelessness — including a special new facility to house and treat mentally ill New Yorkers inhabiting the streets and subways.
The proposal — which City Hall claimed would be the largest investment ever to combat the Big Apple’s homelessness crisis — comes after a series of frightening attacks involving mentally ill individuals in the transit system.
“If we want to make New York City the best place to raise a family, we cannot turn our backs on those sleeping on our subways and streets,” Adams said of his plan included in his 2025 State of The City address.
“This investment will allow us to expand support for New Yorkers who are living on our subways, wrestling with serious mental illness, and at risk of entering shelter. Above all, it will help us tackle street homelessness here in New York City.”
His proposal includes opening an “innovative facility” specifically to support homeless mentally ill New Yorkers, offering psychiatric care and substance abuse treatment as well as shelter, and helping secure permanent housing.
The facility will be run by Health + Hospitals — the city’s public hospital system — but it will be located in a separate housing facility or shelter, not a hospital.
The proposal also includes adding 900 “Safe Haven” beds to house homeless New Yorkers and transition them to permanent housing — bringing the total to 4,900. And adding 100 beds to serve runaway and homeless youth ages 21-24.
The new “safe haven” beds will be spread across the city, particularly in neighborhoods with a high concentration of homeless people, officials said.
Providers in the program offer supportive services, including case management, mental health, and drug abuse treatment.
“This program is a really big deal,” Anne Williams-Isom, the deputy mayor for health and human services told The Post.
She said the program shows compassion for troubled homeless individuals but also addresses concerns commuters have about subway public safety.
“New Yorkers are concerned about people sleeping on the train. It makes people nervous,” Williams-Isom said. “We don’t think New Yorkers should be afraid to take the subway.”
The mayor has separately called on Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature to expand the city’s powers to remove mentally ill New Yorkers from public spaces.
The city has been rocked by a number of recent incidents where mentally ill homeless individuals have committed random violent attacks on the subways against innocent victims, including others living on the streets.
Debrina Kawam, a 57-year-old Toms River, New Jersey resident who fell into homelessness, was torched to death on the F train in Coney Island last month — allegedly by an illegal Guatemalan migrant, Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, who resided in a city shelter.
The mayor’s office said there are 109,500 adults and children residing in city-run or approved emergency shelters, including 50,900 migrants. The city estimates the three-year bill for migrant services will top $6.6 billion by June 30.
The advocacy group Coalition for the Homeless estimates there are 350,000 who are without homes in New York City when factoring in residents who are living doubled up or tripled up with relatives or friends.
A recent report published by the US Department of Housing of Urban Development found that New York state has the highest rate of homelessness per capita than anywhere in the country, much of it concentrated in the city — citing the lack of affordable housing supply, high rents and the tide of asylum-seekers,
Migrants in emergency shelters “accounted for almost 88% of the increase in sheltered homelessness in New York City last year,” the report said.
The Adams administration has zeroed in on the 5% of street homeless individuals who are not in shelters.
Since the start of the mayor’s subway safety plan in 2022, more than 8,000 New Yorkers have been connected to shelters with over 750 now in permanent, affordable housing, Williams-Isom said.
But a report in The City found getting unsheltered people who need psychiatric or substance abuse treatment into apartments has been a challenge.
“Since the start of our administration, we’ve taken unprecedented action to support our most vulnerable by making the largest investment of any administration in addressing street homelessness,” Adams said.
“Today’s announcement of $650 million in effective strategies to help people experiencing street homelessness — including safe haven beds, psychiatric care for people with severe mental illness, and resources for housing families — is yet another example of our administration’s unparalleled commitment to helping all New Yorkers.”
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