Mayor Eric Adams unveiled a $114.5 billion preliminary budget proposal on Thursday, which cuts overall public health spending while adding new funds for a recently announced five-year plan aimed at providing shelter and mental health services to homeless New Yorkers.
While city funding for the Health Department and public hospital system declined, the proposal includes new funding for low-barrier shelter beds, a temporary housing pilot program for people leaving psychiatric care and health clinics for people in custody in the city jail system. It also revises the current fiscal year’s spending in multiple areas, including more money for school nurses and supportive housing – units with attached social services geared toward people at risk of homelessness.
The announcement is the mayor’s first salvo on the city’s next spending plan, kicking off a months-long negotiation process with the City Council ahead of the July 1 start of Fiscal Year 2026. It comes as he faces headwinds from federal bribery and conspiracy charges and a growing list of politically connected opponents in the race for mayor this year.
Overall, Adams’s proposed Health Department spending is $646 million less than what is budgeted in the current fiscal year. Some of that money will likely be added back over the course of the year, said Ana Champeny, vice president of research at fiscal watchdog Citizens Budget Commission.
The city’s funding for New York City Health + Hospitals also declined by about $401 million between the current budget and the mayor’s new proposal. That does not include operating revenue from patient services and other sources, which go directly to the public hospital system.
The preliminary budget includes $137 million of a $650 million plan to address the unmet mental health needs of homeless New Yorkers in Fiscal Year 2026. That plan, unveiled in Adams’ State of the City address last week, calls for 900 new “safe haven” beds – temporary shelter slots with fewer restrictions than traditional beds – which would bring the city’s total to 4,900.
It also includes money for a temporary housing facility to be operated by the public hospital system, which will provide private rooms and on-site behavioral health and medication services to people exiting a psychiatric hospital stay. That program is expected to begin accepting patients in Fiscal Year 2027, said Dr. Mitchell Katz, president and CEO of New York City Health + Hospitals.
Of the new spending on homelessness, $32 million will go toward a new high-security health clinic at H+H’s Woodhull Medical Center for people in city custody that is scheduled to open in Fiscal Year 2027.
Some of the $137 million money will pay for 100 new shelter beds for runaway youth, which would bring that total to 913, and a pilot voucher program to help expecting parents in the shelter system find permanent housing.
The plan also adjusts the Fiscal Year 25 budget, which runs through June, by close to $2.6 billion in additional program spending, offset by close to $1.1 billion in savings, according to budget documents. That includes more than $200 million for school nurses, with $129 million going to the education department and another $96.2 million for school nurses in the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s program. Another $64.2 million will go to supportive housing.
