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City Hall Needs Better Coordination to Tackle NYC Homelessness, Report Says

The city must supply housing that has comprehensive mental health services to tackle homelessness, city Comptroller Brad Lander said.
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New York City Comptroller Brad Lander announces a blueprint to end homelessness on Jan. 13, 2025.

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander on Monday said City Hall needs to improve its management and coordination across agencies to tackle homelessness. 

Lander, who is running for mayor this year, released a report titled Safer For All: A Plan to End Street Homelessness for People with Serious Mental Illness in NYC, which takes an in-depth look at the crisis of people with serious mental illness cycling between the city’s streets, subways, hospitals and jails, which has been amplified by high-profile, tragic incidents of violence in recent weeks.  

Lander said he has come up with a plan that takes a “housing first” approach that was effective at connecting people to stable housing with mental health and social services in cities around the country and was utilized by New York City over a decade ago to end street homelessness for veterans, according to a press release.

“For too long, New York City has taken a ‘housing last’ approach that keeps people with serious mental illness cycling from street to subway to hospital to jail, and back again,” said Lander. “With a ‘housing first’ approach that has been shown to work 70% to 90% of the time to keep people stably housed, with more effective mandated options for those cases when it doesn’t work, and with better management from City Hall, we can end the crisis of street homelessness for seriously mentally ill people in New York City.” 

There are approximately 2,000 people with serious mental illness who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness, or currently in city hospitals or jails who are likely to return to the street upon discharge. Meanwhile, there are over 2,500 units of supportive housing sitting vacant – more than enough to house the vast majority of seriously mentally ill New Yorkers currently sleeping on the street, the report said.

Lander said a series of audits and investigations have shown that there's a significant lack of coordination between city agencies. Outreach teams lose track of clients. Hospitals release patients back to the street when inpatient beds are full, or do not take them in the first place. Judges cannot refer people to alternative to incarceration programs that have no slots. Jails discharge people with serious mental illness back to the street, even when they are homeless and eligible for supportive housing. Without stable housing or effective coordination, adherence to required treatment plans becomes far more difficult, the report said.

The comptroller said the city must create a housing program that has robust wraparound support services for people with serious mental illness experiencing street homelessness; expand and improve involuntary and court-ordered treatment and secure detention programs; and the city and state must both invest in expanding the capacity of the mental health system overall. 




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