Mental health and homelessness advocates welcomed Mayor Eric Adams’ housing efforts to address street homelessness, but his continued push for involuntary hospitalization for people with mental illnesses drew mixed reactions.
The mayor pledged $650 million to reduce street homelessness in his State of the City address on Thursday, as the number of people living on the subways and in the streets has climbed in recent years. The lump sum is slated to fund a new transitional housing facility for people with mental illnesses run by New York City Health + Hospitals, as well as 900 beds in city-operated units called Safe Haven shelters, which boast a lower barrier to entry than traditional homeless shelters and provide mental health treatment.
“Subways, serious mental illness, and shelters: that is how we make a renewed commitment to tackling street homelessness,” Adams said in the address, which was delivered at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. The mayor also renewed his call to pass state legislation to allow more types of providers to involuntarily commit people with mental illnesses to psychiatric hospitals – an expansion of his controversial 2022 directive to forcibly remove people with mental illnesses from the streets and subway system.
Although advocates widely lauded plans to boost temporary housing options, some said his continued rhetoric around safety concerns and calls for involuntary treatment could harm New Yorkers with mental health challenges.
“I think the mayor got it half right,” said Harvey Rosenthal, CEO of the mental health advocacy group Alliance for Rights and Recovery. “Involuntary treatment does not address the root causes of the mental health crisis, but housing does.”
But Tom Harris, president of the Times Square Alliance, a business improvement district that aims to boost economic activity and reduce homelessness in the neighborhood, said that involuntary commitments are sometimes needed for people who do not recognize the toll that homelessness can take on their health.
“It’s inhumane that in 2025 we are not addressing these needs in a more deliberate way,” Harris said.
Safe Haven beds are one way to address underlying causes, Rosenthal said, as they help people get back on their feet while accessing supportive services such as counseling or substance use treatment. The beds offer people more flexibility than a traditional shelter, in that they don’t have curfews or restrictions that could force people out of a room while they search for permanent housing.
The mayor’s promise of 900 new beds adds to the existing 4,000 Safe Haven and stabilization beds citywide, said Liz Garcia, a City Hall spokeswoman.
Other advocates maintained that more must be done to adequately address the issue.
“While increasing the number of Safe Haven beds is an important step to help vulnerable New Yorkers transition off the streets into permanent housing, the number proposed by Mayor Adams does not match our city’s critical needs,” said Beth Haroules, senior staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Disability rights advocates said that the mayor should put even more focus on housing and social services. Rhetoric around mental illness, homelessness and public safety continues to fuel fears among city residents, even though incidents involving people with behavioral health disorders tend to happen in isolation, said Ruth Lowenkron, director of disability justice at the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.
“People wouldn’t be talking about this issue if we had appropriate treatment in place,” Lowenkron said. “If we give people the places to go and the services to get, that will be how we address it.”
