Federal cuts to the state Office of Mental Health could take an axe to parts of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature mental health agenda aimed at reaching the children and homeless adults with the most severe untreated mental illness.
The office is facing a $27 million reduction in federal grants under the Trump administration’s sweeping $12 billion cut to pandemic-era public health funding that was announced last week, which included approximately $360 million to the state and another $100 million to the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. While relatively small compared to reductions to the Health Department, which is set to lose more than $300 million, the cuts could have a surgical impact on the state’s mental health system by targeting the entry point to services for the hardest to reach and treat New Yorkers.
The cuts would impact youth and adult assertive community treatment or ACT teams, which provide intensive services to homeless residents cycling through hospitalization and arrest, Hochul announced on Friday. Crisis stabilization and residential beds and 988 call centers would also see a wind down.
The ACT and stabilization programs are key links in what Hochul has called the “continuum of mental health,” which is based on the idea that a range of services are needed to meet the myriad of needs of homeless people transitioning from street-based outreach to stable residential treatment. The program pairs individuals with a team of medical providers, nurses, peer support, vocational and substance use specialists, making them much less likely to be the subject of an involuntary police removal, another key plank of Hochul’s mental health and subway safety plan, which she has carried out with Mayor Eric Adams.
Providers say the cuts will be devastating at a time when the programs need to be expanded. There are roughly 1,000 people in the city on the waitlist for ACT services and another 300 waiting for a similar program known as intensive mobile treatment.
“Having that be cut would be pretty cataclysmic for those who are the most in need,” said Dr. Troy Boyle, who runs an ACT program with seven teams serving 476 individuals at the Institute for Community Living, based in the Financial District.
The lost services will ultimately cost the state more in emergency care and incarceration, Boyle said, though the Institute for Community Living has not received notice that its ACT contract has been affected by the cuts.
“What you would see is a lot of people reverting back to more acute services, like hospitalizations, ER visits,” he said.
On Friday, Hochul acknowledged that New Yorkers will be hurt, stating, “no State in the nation that has the resources to backfill these sweeping cuts.” She has not said whether the state would make up the funding gaps another way or let the programs take a hit.
Last year, Hochul allocated $9.6 million to youth ACT programs, which launched in the city in 2022 to serve children coming from long-term or repeated hospitalization who need a high level of care. While the funding is small in the scheme of the governor’s current $252 billion executive budget proposal for the new fiscal year, providers say the backing is critical to keeping children out of the hospital.
“It would be disastrous for our kids,” said Abby Jeffrey, Assistant Vice President of Behavioral Health and Wellness at JCCA, which runs the only youth Act program in Brooklyn, serving 20 children with a months-long waitlist. The Midwood-based nonprofit was approved for a $3 million contract in 2022, of which $2 million has been spent so far, according to records kept by the state Comptroller’s office. JCCA has also not heard that its contract, which expires in 2026, has been affected, Jeffrey said.
“There’s really no comparable program in the city and state that could fill the void if something were to happen to youth ACT,” she said.
The governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment about the total funding spent on ACT or how many federal dollars the Office of Mental Health receives.
