Mayor Adams announces over 1,000 homeless New Yorkers moved from subways to permanent homes thanks to Subway Safety Plan

Over 3,500 homeless New Yorkers have been taken off Big Apple streets and subways and placed in permanent housing since the start of Mayor Eric Adams’ term, Hizzoner announced on Monday — touting it as proof that his “Subway Safety Plan” is working.

Over 1,000 of the housing placements came directly from the subway system since the plan launched in early 2022 as part of a broader effort to curb the ongoing homelessness crisis in transit stations, officials said.

Over 3,500 homeless New Yorkers have been taken off Big Apple streets and subways and placed in permanent housing since Mayor Adams’ “Subway Safety Plan” was launched in early 2022.Tomas E. Gaston

The campaign will also focus on efforts made to “change the culture” and laws around seeking mental health aid.Stephen Yang

“More work remains, but it’s clear that the years of walking by New Yorkers in need are over, and this milestone is further proof that we’re continuing to make New York City a safer, more affordable city,” Adams said.

City Hall officials couldn’t say how many people outreach workers had encountered on the streets and subway since 2022, only that 3,500 had been connected to permanent housing.

The last street homelessness count was 4,500 on January 28, an Adams spokesperson said, adding that some 85,500 people are currently being housed in city homeless shelters.

Adams highlighted the number of people connected to permanent housing as part of his new “End Anything Goes” campaign — a push to show how his administration is cracking down on public disorder while expanding services for New Yorkers with mental illness and addiction.

The campaign will highlight the current efforts the administration has made to date to “change the culture” and laws that have prevented mentally ill New Yorkers from seeking help — while also making investments to support outreach, harm reduction, and housing, Adams said.

“This success would not be possible without our historic investments,” the mayor said, crediting Safe Haven beds, outreach teams, and a “record-breaking creation of affordable housing.”

Since launching the multi-agency Subway Safety Plan, the city has connected 8,600 people to types of shelter, with over 1,000 now in permanent homes. The effort focuses on outreach at stations to pull people with serious mental health issues out of the transit system.

The milestone is the centerpiece of Adams’ new “End Anything Goes” campaign — a public push to show how his administration is cracking down on public disorder while expanding services for New Yorkers with mental illness and addiction.Michael Nagle

The MTA said this July had the lowest transit-crime stats since 1995 when the data were first collected, with an 8% drop in felonies in the subways last month — even as a string of violent crimes in the subway system recently left a straphanger slashed and another shoved onto the tracks by a muttering maniac.

Hizzoner also touted the city’s growing network of shelter beds, with 400 more Safe Haven beds to house the homeless and transition them to permanent housing to be added by the end of 2025.

So far, 1,400 new beds have been added since Adams took office, City Hall said.

Adams introduced a $650 million plan to tackle homelessness and get mentally ill New Yorkers off the streets and out of subways during his State of the City speech in January — begging Albany for more help tackling the Big Apple’s ongoing crisis.

The ambitious, five-year proposal — which is set to include a special new facility to house and treat mentally ill New Yorkers — follows a spate of frightening underground attacks that have plagued the transit system of late.

The MTA said this July had the lowest transit-crime stats since 1995 when the data were first collected.Helayne Seidman

As part of the plan, a $13 million “pilot program,” as described by a City Hall rep, would create a 100-bed supportive housing facility that would provide shelter to people leaving psychiatric facilities who are not yet ready to fully live alone without support to continue their meds and treatment, officials said.

The initiative would also add 900 “Safe Haven” beds, which will be spread across the city, to house the homeless and transition them to permanent housing — bringing the total to 4,900. An additional 100 beds will also be added to serve runaway and homeless youth ages 21 to 24.

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Homelessness advocacy groups sue NYC to protect housing incentive

A coalition of advocacy groups sued the New York City Department of Social Services (DSS) over its plan to eliminate a housing incentive supporting homeless people in a lawsuit filed in a Manhattan court Monday.

The organizations seek to stop DSS from terminating the “unit hold” incentive, a one-month rent payment to landlords ensuring apartments are held off the market for prospective tenants while paperwork for CityFHEPS housing vouchers, a rental-assistance program, is being processed. DSS plans to end the voucher program on July 1, citing a declining need due to faster processing times.

The plaintiffs, represented by The Legal Aid Society, allege the unit hold incentive is crucial to finding homeless people stable homes and asked the courts to block DSS from implementing the change, requesting a preliminary injunction to resume unit hold payments.

Pavita Krishnaswamy, senior attorney in the Civil Law Reform Unit at The Legal Aid Society, said in a press release that the unit hold incentive has played a “critical role” in finding housing for homeless New Yorkers.

“Eliminating it without notice or explanation not only defies the law — it defies basic common sense and compassion,” Krishnaswamy said. “This abrupt policy change will extend shelter stays, break up families, disrupt education, and cost the City far more in the long run.”

The plaintiffs include the Coalition for the Homeless, Women in Need (WiN) and Neighbors Together — three prominent homelessness organizations in New York City — as well as three residents of homeless shelters.

The lawsuit details the lengthy process for CityFHEPS approval, including various levels of clearance, inspection and review, that makes landlords “wary” of the voucher program, which the advocacy groups point to as proof that the unit holds are necessary.

A DSS spokesperson said the department does not comment on the specifics of ongoing litigation but told amNewYork that new technology has streamlined the CityFHEPS process to an average of three weeks, decreasing the need for expensive unit hold incentives.

“The unit hold incentive served as a stop-gap solution to address the lack of robust mechanisms for processing rental subsidies to secure housing that is quickly leasing up,” the spokesperson wrote. “Last year, we rolled out a technological overhaul to reduce the agency’s long-standing reliance on manual tracking and outdated systems which were more prone to inconsistencies resulting in processing delays.”

According to the DSS spokesperson, DSS aimed to phase out the unit hold program as a cost-saving measure — part of an Adams administration budget reduction program — after the CityFHEPS budget grew to $1.25 billion in 2025, up from $253 million in fiscal year 2021. 

“Taking a financially sustainable approach is better than having to make harder decisions down the line which could impact the issuance of new vouchers for the most at-risk New Yorkers,” the spokesperson wrote.

New York City also faces limited state support, with only $50 million budgeted for a statewide rental voucher program, even as President Donald Trump attacks the federally funded Section 8 system, which helps fund public housing.

The Adams administration informed housing advocates and landlords it was ending the unit hold incentive in a May 30 email the lawsuit describes as “abrupt.” The change was not announced publicly, but City Limits reported on the decision on June 10.

Christine Quinn, WiN’s president and former speaker of City Council, said in a June 13 statement that the Adams administration is destroying opportunities for homeless New Yorkers.

“Mayor Adams has already proposed hiking the rent on vulnerable families utilizing CityFHEPS vouchers and now he wants to make it even harder for them to access an apartment at all,” Quinn said. “Instead of trying to solve one of the most pressing challenges facing our city, the Adams Administration seems determined to make New York City’s unprecedented homelessness crisis even worse.”

“With over 175,000 New Yorkers on the brink of eviction, and more than 46,000 children living in city homeless shelters, now is not the time to make it even harder for families to access the stable housing they need in order to achieve self-sufficiency,” Quinn added.

Nearly 22,000 individuals moved out of shelters in fiscal year 2024 using CityFHEPS, an increase of 56% from the previous year, especially as DSS loosened eligibility requirements, according to DSS data. 

Despite the average waiting time of three weeks, DSS Commissioner Molly Waslow Park admitted during a January City Council hearing that waiting times are variable around that average, and a City Council report released June 10 described the “administrative delays” that can increase the wait time to months.

According to housing advocates and experts, the CityFHEPS unit hold incentive has been key to building trust with landlords, who are increasingly skeptical about waiting for the lengthy DSS approval process.

The lawsuit now sits before the Supreme Court of New York, a statewide trial court.

“Without Unit Hold incentives, shelter residents will experience even greater difficulties in obtaining apartments in which they can use their subsidies and will spend more months in shelter at additional cost to the City, while tenants trying to obtain new housing in the face of eviction from unregulated apartments will be placed at greater risk of shelter entry,” the lawsuit reads.

Getting the Vote Out Among Homeless New Yorkers & Domestic Violence Survivors By Megan McGibney

The lobby of New Destiny Housing’s supportive housing facility for domestic violence survivors was decorated with balloons during a recent Friday afternoon. A brightly-covered table dotted with pamphlets was set up to greet those entering.

This cheerful scene in the lobby had a purpose: to help tenants there to register to vote.

“We’re not telling people who to vote for,” said Gabriela Sandoval Requena, the director of policy and communications for New Destiny Housing. “We can just say, this is how you register … in a way that is safe, confidential for you.”

The effort was arranged by the Family Homelessness Coalition (FHC)* and the League of Women Voters. FHC, a network of housing and homeless services providers, has often been involved in political advocacy, including lobbying lawmakers in Albany and co-hosting a mayoral forum with City Limits back in April. But this voter registration drive was a first for the group.

“It’s always been a goal of our coalition to really empower people with lived experience with family homelessness,” said Patrick Boyle, senior director at Enterprise Community Partners, one of the co-conveners of the FHC. 

“This idea came about in the context of all the elections happening right now, the mayoral elections, other elections happening at the state and local level,” Boyle added. “Homelessness is such a major issue in New York that we want to make sure that people who have experienced homelessness are making their voices heard.”

According to the Coalition for the Homeless, 70 percent of the 114,791 people who slept in the city’s homeless shelters in February were families with children. And in 2024 alone, nearly 12,000 individuals spent time in the domestic violence shelter system specifically, including 6,832 children.

Because of a time limit on stays in the city’s DV shelters, hundreds of people exit these facilities each year to enter the wider Department of Homeless Services’ system, as City Limits previously reported.

According to New Destiny Housing, more than 20 percent of families with kids in the DHS shelter system in 2023 cited domestic violence as their reason for experiencing homelessness, more than eviction.

“When [people] think of homelessness,” said Sandoval Requena, “they think of the individual that you see on the streets. But kids make up the biggest chunk of the population in shelters.”

“Because we have a right to shelter in New York, you don’t see families sleeping on the streets; they’re usually in the shelter system,” she added. “It’s just the fact that there is a strong safety net for them to have temporary respite, then it’s just not seen. It’s just not discussed, unfortunately.”

Nor are DV survivors often able to draw attention to their experiences. Fleeing domestic violence means rebuilding a life while trying to keep their abuser away; treating mental health issues, particularly PTSD, anxiety, and depression; and arranging for their children to attend school, sometimes miles from their new location.

Trissy is one of New Destiny Housing’s tenants who updated her address during the voter registration drive. She had delayed doing so, saying there was so much else to focus on after she and her children left her abuser. And casting a ballot meant she had to travel about an hour to her old neighborhood to vote there.

“As a survivor of domestic violence, once you make the decision to change your circumstance, a lot comes along with that, and it can be difficult to address basic tasks that were normal,” Trissy said. “And there’s a lot going on. Looking for an apartment and a job, things like that. I feel like it affects your mental health. I feel like sometimes new environments could be a little overwhelming as well.”

At the registration drive, advocates advised domestic violence survivors on how they can register confidentially. (Photo by Adi Talwar)

Warshana is another DV survivor who also did not immediately update her address because of how busy she was, and feeling unaware of what the issues were. “Voting will be the last thing you’re thinking about when you’re trying to go to housing and daycare and work,” she said.

Another factor is the fear that their abuser could discover where they live if they register with their new address. New York State law allows domestic violence survivors to request that their information be kept private, and the city recently passed legislation requiring local agencies to create and distribute guidance on how to do so. 

For more information on applying for confidential voter registration, visit the state’s Board of Elections website here. 

“Domestic violence survivors or current victims can keep their voter registration confidential,” said Kai Rosenthal, co-president of the League of Women Voters of the City of New York. “And it’s been made easier that they don’t have to affirm it. A judge doesn’t have to affirm it. They can just affirm on a form.”

Unhoused New Yorkers also don’t need a permanent residence to register to vote, advocates point out. They can use a street corner or even a park as their address, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless’ “You Don’t Need a Home to Vote” campaign.

Kadisha is the host of FHC’s podcast, “Hear Our Voices,” and is formerly homeless herself. While not a DV survivor, Kadisha said being unhoused in general can make New Yorkers feel their voices don’t matter. 

“They don’t think about how our vote can really make a difference,” Kadisha said. “But if you put it in their mind that if you vote, you can make sure that your voices are heard no matter what part of your life you’re in at the time.”

Survivors who spoke with City Limits said issues important to them include affordable housing, education, and mental healthcare. Warshana believes if more DV survivors voted and created a bloc, they could make a difference when it comes to those issues.

“I feel like voting is a way of speaking for yourself, for you to not fade into the background,” said Trissy. “Even if it doesn’t go the way that you want it to go, at least you know that your opinion is important and that you contributed. You get to select the candidate based on values and concerns and things that [are] important to you.”

Kadisha agrees with that sentiment. “It might not be from that person who did the thing to you, the harm,” she said. “It’s like a way of kind of taking the power back, in a sense, to make sure that you can be heard and you can be seen.”

*Editor’s note: The Family Homelessness Coalition is among City Limits’ funders.

To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org. Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

A New Exhibition Shines Light on NYC’s Homeless

On May 10th, at 526 7th Avenue, 4th Floor don’t miss Zhenya Gershman’s exhibition, where you’ll have the opportunity to discover the second part of her project “I See You.” The latest exhibition, entitled ICU2, highlights homeless people in New York.

Zhenya Gershman is an artist who uses her canvass to highlight a wide variety of causes, from the plight of the homeless in America to the fight for freedom in Ukraine.

Born in Moscow in 1975, Gershman is now a bi-coastal painter in her adopted country, with studios in both the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan and Los Angeles. It fulfills her lifelong ambition. Since she was 10 years old, she says knew she wanted to become an artist, At 14, she held her first exhibition in St. Petersburg.

In addition to her art, she is an educator at her own school, “Zhenya’s Art Academy,” where she teaches painting and drawing techniques to international students. As an art historian with a Master of Fine Arts, she also worked in museums, deepening her knowledge and later using this expertise for online museum tours.

In 2021, after the arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, she felt compelled to act through art. She painted his portrait, calling it a “landscape of the soul,” a more abstract form, and shared a new piece monthly on Instagram to raise awareness. While it didn’t change the outcome, it spread his message. Another turning point occurred on February 24, 2022, her birthday, when the war in Ukraine began. Feeling personally impacted, she painted a portrait of Elena, a Ukrainian woman bombed in the first attack. The painting sold for $100,000 at an auction, with all proceeds donated to the aid organization, Ukraine Red Cross .

She later contacted Elena and showed her the painting virtually. This led to the creation of “Brushes Before Bullets,” a project capturing the war’s atrocities.

After these two major projects, Zhenya embraced her new identity as an artist using art to give a chance to those who don’t have one. One day, she saw a homeless person holding a sign that read, “I might as well be invisible.” Her husband tapped the homeless person’s shoulder and said, “I see you.” This inspired her to create the “I See You” project, which she exhibited last October. The May 10th exhibition, ICU2, is the second part of this project. ICU2 has two meanings: “Intensive Care Unit,” reflecting the fact that homeless people are in dire need of care, and “I see you too,” responding to the homeless by acknowledging their presence.

Zhenya views this project as a way to highlight the divide between those on the streets and society, demonstrating that anyone can fall on hard times, as seen with recent events like the Florida hurricane or fires in Los Angeles. No matter how much money you have, if you are unfortunate, you can end up on the street too, she said.

Every morning on her way to work, she finds inspiration on the subway. There, she meets her “models,” as she calls the people she paints, strangers who catch her eye. She approaches them, asks for a photo, and transforms these candid encounters into oil-on-canvas portraits. Rather than selecting flattering shots, Zhenya chooses what she calls “the bad ones,” seeking emotion and what is missing in the perfect image—for her, painting a perfect picture makes no sense.

She works exclusively with oil-on-canvas, drawn to its texture and expressive potential. She describes oil-on-canvas as a “time capsule,” capturing raw emotion with urgency. This technique allows her to push and pull the paint to reflect the fleeting moments she experiences on the subway. She also uses illusionism in order to create more emotion. Some parts of her paintings are really detailed in order to trigger the memory of the viewer to feel closer to the model — for instance, in « Double Life », she detailed the zipper of the coat. On the opposite, there are unfinished parts which are created to keep the painting realistic.

“If we saw a painting really well painted that seems perfect, it wouldn’t seem real,” she said. So that’s why she keeps some details “unfinished.” Moreover, her technique makes us want to touch the paintings and even feel like the model is in the room with us, thanks to the three-dimensional effect.

One of the hardest paintings for her is a painting she did entitled, “The Grill,” about a homeless man sleeping on a heating greate. She said it was a challenge to put feelings into the painting of the grill since it’s just a grill—but she thought, “If he can sleep on it, then I can paint it,” and then succeeded in painting it the way she wanted to.

This ongoing project has connected her with people who have left a lasting impression, such as Rachel, an artist who became a close friend after Zhenya saw her daily, and Daniel, whom Zhenya nervously asked for a photo. When she did, he asked, “Do you think I’m handsome?” She replied, “Yes, of course,” and he agreed to be painted.

Zhenya’s view of homeless people has also evolved. Rather than offering money or food, she believes we should ask them, “What do you need?” to provide the best care. One experience that “shocked” her was when her daughter Nikka saw a homeless man for the first time and begged her to help him. Zhenya was about to give him money, but he refused, saying it wasn’t necessary because she had a child to support.

Her artistic roots are influenced by three major figures: Rembrandt, whose empathy for the needy shaped her approach; Vincent Van Gogh, whose belief in immortalizing everyone in art inspired her inclusivity; and Käthe Kollwitz, whose mastery of black-and-white art conveyed deep emotion with minimal means. Their influence resonates through every brushstroke and subway portrait.

Don’t miss the chance to experience this emotional and new exhibition at 526 7th Ave, 4th Floor. Book your visit here: https://www.artishousenyc.com/icu2

NYC says it moved 3,500 people out of homeless encampments, but just 114 into shelter

The Adams administration spent $3.5 million clearing 2,300 homeless encampments from public spaces between January to September last year, according to new numbers released by the administration on Friday.

But only 114 of the 3,500 homeless people displaced by the clearances were moved into temporary shelter, according to the data. No one was placed in permanent housing, according to the report.

City Hall spokesperson William Fowler said the new reporting requirement doesn’t tell a full story or consider when people may go to shelter before or after a sweep.

“But let’s be clear: We know there is still more work to be done. That is why Mayor [Eric] Adams announced an ambitious $650 million investment in his State of the City address to tackle street homelessness, including an additional 900 new safe haven beds to get more New Yorkers the help they deserve,” Fowler said. "Mayor Adams has been clear that there is no dignity in sleeping on the streets, and there is no moral superiority in just walking by and doing nothing.”

City officials say it takes several attempts to convince people living on the street to accept shelter and with the city’s vacancy rate hovering at 1.4% housing options are limited. Obtaining more permanent housing options or housing vouchers also requires paperwork and identification and can’t be done the same day on site, officials said.

City Councilmember Sandy Nurse said the fact that no one affected is now in permanent housing shows that clearing the encampments is a failure.

“ If you cannot show that you have permanently housed a single individual, there is no way you can look at this and say this is a success,” said Nurse, who sponsored legislation to get the city to detail the sweeps' frequency, cost and effectiveness.

Although former mayors have also conducted sweeps, Mayor Eric Adams ordered an interagency collaboration led by the NYPD to get people off the streets and connected to services. More than 10,000 city workers participated in the sweeps, which included the sanitation department to dismantle any physical structures or tents and the NYPD, according to the data.

Employees from the parks, sanitation and homeless services departments, as well as police, respond to complaints to clear tents, cardboard boxes or encampments in public spaces and offer services to homeless people on site.

The reports show the sanitation department made up the bulk of the cost and police were involved in all but one of the sweeps.

The data is required under a City Council law passed in 2023 and is expected to be released quarterly. The first report was due in May but city officials said the request was unprecedented and required more time to put together. The data discloses the agencies involved in the sweeps, how often the sweeps happen and what services were offered to homeless individuals.

The data also show 71% of the sweeps occurred at locations that were previously cleared.

Gothamist previously obtained some records on the clearances that showed some sites that operated as street vendor locations were visited nearly 200 times. But other street corners where homeless individuals congregated were also cleared multiple times, the records showed.

Fowler said 97% of homeless New Yorkers reside in city shelters and the Adams administration has helped 8,000 people off the subways and into temporary housing through other outreach efforts.

Homeless advocates have long argued the city’s sweeps are ineffective and can be traumatizing for the people involved, whose few possessions are often thrown away.

“They should be using all of these city resources and millions of dollars to give homes to people but instead they use it to push and kick them around in the streets,” said Eduardo Ventura, who has previously been cleared out in the city’s sweeps and is a member of the advocacy group Safety Net Activists. “We need to help and care for homeless people and house them, not waste the city's resources on harming them."

Nurse said the city's next mayor must focus on eliminating barriers to permanent housing because Adams’ strategy isn’t working.

“ The mayor has focused almost 100% of his public safety approach, which includes the street homeless removal strategy, as an aesthetic and cosmetic approach,” she said. “Out of sight, out of mind.”

Mayor Adams Takes Unprecedented Action to Curb Street Homelessness, Support People With Severe Mental Illness With $650 Million Investment for City's Most Vulernable Population

NEW YORK – As part of a $650 million plan to tackle street homelessness announced in last week's State of the City address, New York City Mayor Eric Adams today unveiled details of the administration's historic investment to help New York City's most vulnerable populations and support those with severe mental illness, including a new effort to support those with severe mental illness and who do not have a home. Under a new, innovative model, "Bridge to Home," NYC Health + Hospitals will offer a supportive, home-like environment to patients with serious mental illness who are ready for discharge from the hospital but do not have a place to go. By offering patients intensive treatment and comprehensive support, Bridge to Home aims to keep patients on a path toward sustained success, reducing unnecessary emergency room visits and inpatient hospitalizations, decreasing street homelessness and reliance on shelters, and lowering interactions with the criminal justice system. NYC Health + Hospitals expects to ramp the program up in Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 and fully operationalize it in FY27, serving up to 100 beds.

As part of this street homelessness plan, Mayor Adams also announced a dramatic expansion of the city's capacity to serve people experiencing unsheltered homelessness by adding 900 Safe Haven shelter beds and 100 Runaway and Homeless Youth Beds, which offer intensive wraparound services and specialized resources that drastically increase success rates. These initiatives are a key component of the administration's Street Homeless Solutions Plan. Today's announcement represents a new investment of over $620 million over five years to serve the street homeless population. Combined with the administration's previous Subway Safety Plan investment, this investment brings the New York City Department of Homeless Services street programming budget to over $350 million in FY25 and $400 million at full ramp-up, which will be the largest annual investment in street sheltering in city history and is more than double the city's street programming budget from when Mayor Adams entered office.

Building on this work, Mayor Adams will also be advancing a bold new initiative aimed at ensuring no child should ever be born into New York City's shelter system. The $30 million pilot program will connect soon-to-be parents applying for shelter with services that help them find permanent housing and prevent homelessness, and will be rolled out over the coming weeks.

"For too long, government has failed to care for and help unhoused New Yorkers, especially those with severe mental illness, so when we came into office, we said the days of ignoring people in need — on our streets and in our subways — were over," said Mayor Adams. "Today, we are announcing further details of our historic $650 million effort to tackle street homelessness. Our new 'Bridge to Home' model will help New Yorkers with severe mental illness and invest in 1,000 street beds that we know are in high demand and that are highly effective. This administration has made the largest annual investment in serving street homelessness in the city's history and has more than doubled our street programming budget from when we came into office. We will continue to lead on this issue because it is the right and compassionate thing to do, and it is how we make New York City the best place to raise a family."

"Our highest needs patients deserve our highest level of care," said NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Mitchell Katz, MD. "'Bridge to Home' will give our patients with serious mental illness a new beginning, combining social and recreational activities with the privacy of their own room and psychiatric support from a comprehensive care team, including peers. Our goal is to keep these patients engaged in care and able to develop the skills needed to live a healthy and independent life. We are thrilled that Mayor Adams has invested in this exciting innovation in the city's approach to behavioral health and stability."

Bridge to Home

As the city's first-of-its-kind model, Bridge to Home will provide single rooms, three meals a day, structured recreation, and individualized, comprehensive behavioral health care on-site, including medication management, individual and group therapy, substance use disorder treatment, and around-the-clock support. For a period of six to 12 months, patients will stay in temporary housing with comprehensive behavioral health treatment located on-site. They will be allowed to stay at this residence until they can be transitioned to permanent supportive housing facilitated by the health system's "Housing for Health" initiative. The program will be staffed 24/7 by NYC Health + Hospitals professionals, including psychiatric providers, social workers, nurses, peer specialists, and licensed creative arts therapists. The administration is investing $13 million in the annual baseline budget for Bridge to Home.

Bridge to Home will be a critical addition to the continuum of care for behavioral health, giving the city's public hospitals an additional discharge option that was previously missing for individuals who no longer meet inpatient criteria but need additional supports in the community. It builds on the care provided by the system's three Extended Care Units (ECUs), which offer inpatient care for patients with serious mental illness who have been historically disconnected from health and social services for up to 120 days. For these New Yorkers, the ECUs provide more intensive inpatient treatment coupled with social learning, behavioral paradigms, and person-centered rehabilitation.

In the ECU, patients access psychopharmacological treatment; rehabilitative activities, including music and art therapy; reading; and various exercises, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. ECUs are focused on comprehensive discharge and aftercare planning with 50 percent of patients connected to permanent housing within six months of discharge. Data shows that individuals have seen a 54 percent reduction in Emergency Department visits and inpatient psychiatric hospitalizations within the same period when using ECUs.

Increasing Unsheltered Homelessness Bed Capacity

Safe Haven shelter beds are "low-barrier to entry" shelter facilities that offer transitional housing and are often the first step towards helping New Yorkers experiencing homelessness accept services and transition off of the streets and out of the subways.

Safe Havens and stabilization beds are small-scale, low-barrier programs specifically tailored for unsheltered individuals who may be resistant to accepting, or who may not be best served by, other services, including traditional transitional housing settings. These sites are equipped with on-site services and compassionate staff who work closely with these New Yorkers to build trust, stabilize lives, encourage further transition off the streets and out of the subways, and help them ultimately transition into permanent housing. Today's announcement brings the total capacity of Safe Haven and stabilization beds to 4,900. The administration is investing $106 million in the annual baseline budget for Safe Havens and other low-barrier beds.

Runaway and Homeless Youth beds provide more specialized resources to younger adults and vulnerable populations. Youth experiencing homelessness are more likely to accept services in these facilities, which are in high demand and often oversubscribed. Today's announcement brings the total capacity of Runaway and Homeless Youth beds to over 900. The administration is investing $6 million in the annual baseline budget for Homeless Young Adult beds.

The Adams administration has made the largest investment in New York City history in creating specialized shelter beds to address street homelessness. The city has opened 1,400 Safe Haven and stabilization beds since the start of the administration and doubled the number of street outreach teams. In February 2022, Mayor Adams launched the Subway Safety Plan to address public safety concerns and support people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, including some of the city's hardest-to-reach New Yorkers experiencing mental health and substance use challenges on New York City's subways. Since the start of the plan, over 8,000 New Yorkers have been connected to shelter, with over 2,800 now in permanent, affordable housing. A key part of the Subway Safety Plan is the co-response programs, such as Partnership Assistance for Transit Homelessness (PATH) and Subway Co-Response Outreach Teams (SCOUT), which bring together law enforcement and trained clinicians to conduct outreach on subways. Since the beginning of PATH, the administration has contacted over 7,400 unhoused New Yorkers and delivered services to over 2,200 people.

"The senseless acts of violence we've seen across New York City should not be happening, and those suffering from severe mental illness should get the care they need," said New York State Senator Jessica Scarcella-Spanton. "As we work together to pass my bill at the state level, the Supportive Interventions Act, we need to ensure that the proper resources are in place to support those who need the help. We need to continue to work together to get those in crisis help and make our communities safer."

"I've had the opportunity to collaborate with leadership at Bellevue to address health needs in our community and across the city. I know this world-class institution can help lead the way in addressing the closely intertwined issues of mental illness and homelessness," said New York State Assemblymember Harvey Epstein. "Without a stable living environment and supports, it's hard for individuals in crisis to move forward with their lives and get well. Today's announcement is a critical step towards ensuring that people in crisis are able to get the support they need to live productive lives. I look forward to working with the city and leadership at Bellevue to ensure an effective rollout of this program that treats individuals with dignity and compassion,"

"In a city where one in ten people experiences serious psychological distress, and only half receive treatment, we must do everything we can to bring people the help they need. I commend Mayor Adams for this common sense $650 million investment to address the crisis among our mentally ill and homeless New Yorkers," said New York State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar. "This comprehensive plan provides over 1,000 new Safe Haven beds, Runaway and Homeless Youth Beds, and beds for discharged patients with serious mental illness. These will be welcoming environments to support and uplift vulnerable New Yorkers who have no other safe housing option, putting them on the path to treatment and stable housing. This builds upon the administration's extensive homeless outreach and services that have already moved 8,000 people from the subways into shelter and transitioned 18,500 households into permanent housing. I am building on this success by introducing the Empire State of Mind Act, which will provide unprecedented access to mental healthcare. Together, we will bring support and care to all New Yorkers, allowing everyone to enjoy dignity, safety, and stability."

"Mental illness, particularly among our unhoused population, has contributed to a troubling rise in random acts of violence and a heightened sense of unease in our city," said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. "Addressing this crisis requires thoughtful, compassionate action, and I commend the mayor for his proposals aimed at providing treatment, housing, and support, rather than relying on arrest and incarceration. While no single initiative can solve these complex challenges, investments in compassionate, evidence-based approaches will improve public safety and help restore a sense of security for all New Yorkers."

"Individuals with severe mental illness require specialized services to help them get the care they need," said New York City Councilmember and Health Committee Chair Lynn Schulman. "Today's announcement by Mayor Adams of a significant funding investment in supportive beds and comprehensive treatment is a big step in the right direction to address this important issue."

"We have seen the homelessness and mental health crises playing out on our streets for far too long," said New York City Councilmember Keith Powers. "No one should have to spend a night on the street, particularly children. Shelter beds are a crucial measure to bring people inside and out of the elements, and to begin the process of connecting them to long-term, stable housing. Investments like these are vital to making our city safer, all while building sustainable solutions for those who are unhoused."

"Mayor Adams' plan represents the holistic approach we need to truly address the crisis of street homelessness and support New Yorkers with severe mental illness," said New York City Councilmember Mercedes Narcisse. "These are some of our most vulnerable neighbors, and they need an aggressive yet sensitive approach that combines compassionate care with tangible resources. Programs like 'Bridge to Home' and the expansion of Safe Haven beds are crucial steps toward breaking the cycle of homelessness and ensuring that no one is left behind. We must act with urgency and empathy to restore dignity and hope to these New Yorkers."

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How to help homeless people in NYC as winter months bring dangerous conditions

This time of year presents unique challenges for people who don't have a place to live. The temperatures drop and the need for shelter skyrockets. But for those who see people living on the streets and want to help, the best way to do so is not always clear, especially if the situation feels urgent, unpredictable, or dangerous.

David Giffen is the executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless. He joined WNYC’s "Morning Edition" host Michael Hill this week to talk about what to do.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Michael Hill: Mr. Giffen, what does Coalition for the Homeless recommend we do when we want to help people we see who are unhoused this time of year?

David Giffen: What many people need is just information about where they can get help because there are lots of different types of help that an individual might need. The first thing I would recommend is to give them the phone number of the coalition's crisis hotline. Our crisis services help about 10,000 people a year. So you can go to our website to find that, it's 888-358-2384. You know, we also have a printable PDF that has all kinds of resources for people experiencing homelessness — everything from where they think where they can get food to clothing. So you can go to our website and print that out.

And in fact, we have a whole page called how to help that presents you with all kinds of different scenarios you might come across, and then gives you advice about what to do in that situation.

How is the crisis hotline different from a 311 call?

Well, when you call 311 generally what happens is the city will deploy law enforcement. Sending uniformed police officers to involuntarily remove somebody from the subway system — which is the city's preferred method now — really doesn't give people the help that they need. Look, if you see somebody who is apparently presenting a danger to themself or to others, call 311 or 911 in that situation.

But what we need to see happening more often is trained mental health professionals being deployed, who know how to de-escalate situations, and who can offer people the help they need.

Let's say we're walking by a person who is unhoused, and the person's on the street. We want to do something in that very moment. No donating to an organization at that moment, but what do we do?

Look, if you feel comfortable giving somebody food, clothing, money, please do so. If you see a human being that's suffering and in need, it's very hard to walk by and not want to do something directly. You know, I have kids, and for my 9 year old it's impossible for her to walk by somebody on the street and not demand to stop and try to talk to them and try to give them money.

I wish we all, you know, stayed in touch with our inner child in that way because we all do have that desire to help somebody in trouble. If you feel uncomfortable or if it feels like a situation that might present some physical danger — which is, by the way, extremely rare — then don't do so.

Another situation, what do you recommend if someone is experiencing medical distress? Let's say someone looks like they may be hypothermic, while some folks may call the police in that instance, others may be reluctant to do so, maybe because of their own experiences with law enforcement. What do you recommend?

If somebody is in imminent danger, call 911. Don't hesitate. They're going to need medical help in that situation. So that is absolutely the advice. If you see somebody who looks like they're in trouble and in imminent physical danger, then definitely call 911.

Can you think of a place where they're getting it right or close to right in terms of dealing with the issue of the unhoused on the street?

Yeah, you know, unfortunately, we have to get in an airplane and fly to Helsinki. Helsinki as a city fully adopted the housing first model to address homelessness. The housing first model means that you approach somebody who's without a home and you say, “Here's an apartment.” You just put them in the apartment and it's not contingent upon participation in any kind of program. Once they're housed, then you offer them the help that they need. The housing first model is very successful. Helsinki used it to effectively eliminate homelessness in that city. There are effectively no housing first programs operating in New York City anymore. There are some that are very successful at it, but their units are full and there's a two- or three-year waiting list for any vacancy.

NYC’s Homeless Camp Sweeps Violate Constitution, Lawsuit Claims The city is supposed to give notice first and store people’s possessions, but it’s not the suit claims.

he ashes of deceased relatives, warm clothes in the dead of winter, personal documents and irreplaceable family photographs are just some of the items New Yorkers say were thrown away during homeless encampment sweeps that often take place with little or no warning, according to a new federal lawsuit filed Tuesday. 

The city’s own internal policies require at least 48 hours warning ahead of such sweeps, and for people to have most of their belongings stored for up to 90 days. 

But in practice, the new lawsuit filed by six homeless New Yorkers and the Urban Justice Center Safety Net Project alleges that city officials regularly violate those procedures, sweeping encampments over and over again with little or no warning and simply throwing people’s possessions away. 

The plaintiffs are seeking to have the suit certified as a class action, which would allow thousands of other homeless people impacted by these sweeps to join the case, which alleges that the city is violating the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable searches and seizures. 

While the suit, which was first reported by The New York Times, describes repeated interactions between homeless outreach workers and the plaintiffs, as they were only offered transportation to drop-in centers — where the wait for a bed could last days.

Three of the six plaintiffs still live on city streets, while another three now have safe haven beds at shelters with less restrictive rules and fewer roommates but only after the Safety Net Project intervened on their behalf. 

“Sweeps are cruel, counterproductive, and cause immense harm to homeless New Yorkers,” said Natalie Druce, a staff attorney with the Urban Justice Center – Safety Net Project in a statement announcing the lawsuit, which names defendants including the City of New York, Mayor Eric Adams, acting NYPD Commissioner Thomas Donlon, Department of Social Services Commissioner Molly Park and Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch. 

“Not only is the City’s conduct unlawful but it is punitive and ineffective—homeless people are being policed, punished for their existence in public space, and pushed further away from permanent housing,” Druce said.

William Fowler, a spokesperson for Adams, defended the city’s approach to homeless encampments, saying more than 2,000 people who had lived on the streets made it into permanent housing in the past two fiscal years. 

“The city’s homeless encampment outreach and clean up efforts operate under one defining principle: that there is nothing dignified about being forced to sleep on the streets,” Fowler said. “Rather than walking past an encampment and doing nothing to help those in need, we treat people experiencing homelessness with dignity, offering to connect them to housing, health care, and to properly store their valuables while temporary structures not meant to be lived in are removed.”

The city’s Law Department will review the lawsuit, Fowler added. 

“We’re going to rid the encampments off our street and we’re going to place people in healthy living conditions with wraparound services,” Adams told the Times in March of 2022, promoting the sweeps his administration has referred to as “clean-ups.” 

“I’m looking to do it within a two weeks’ period.”

The next month, Adams, appearing at a clean-up, said that “’I can’t help but to believe that if [apostles] Matthew, Mark, Luke and John was here today, he would be on the streets with me, helping people get out of encampments.’ 

‘You Don’t Know Where to Go’

The sweeps are part of longstanding city policy to curb the seemingly intractable problem of street homelessness. New York City’s unique “right to shelter” protections under the state constitution and its cold winters mean many more homeless New Yorkers are housed indoors than in other cities. 

People who remain outside often do so because they prefer it to the city’s notoriously dangerous and overcrowded congregate shelter system where dozens of people are assigned to a single room.  

NYC homelessness is at its highest point in nearly a century, advocates say. This borough has the most reports

By

• Erik Bascome | tbascome@siadvance.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Amid skyrocketing rent prices, an influx of migrants and an ongoing mental health crisis, advocates believe that homelessness in New York City has reached its highest point in nearly a century.

The Coalition for the Homeless, one of the city’s leading homeless advocacy organizations, estimates that there are approximately 350,000 homeless individuals living in New York City, including roughly 132,000 sleeping in city-run shelters, more than 200,000 temporarily staying with others and thousands more sleeping unsheltered on the streets, in encampments and within the city’s mass transit system.

The Staten Island Advance/SILive.com recently analyzed 311 complaint data from New York City’s Open Data portal to see which parts of the city are filing the most complaints regarding homeless individuals and encampments, offering insights into which areas the city should be targeting in its outreach efforts.

The data set includes all 311 complaints throughout the five boroughs from Jan. 1 through Oct. 14, the last date for which data was available at the time of the analysis.

Through Oct. 14, there had been 41,782 homeless complaints filed across New York City, with an overwhelming majority of them, more than 67%, coming from Manhattan.

Brooklyn has had the second-most homeless complaints so far this year with 6,652, followed by Queens with 5,048, the Bronx with 1,702 and Staten Island with 227. The remaining four complaints did not list a specific borough.

ON STATEN ISLAND

Further analysis showed that certain Staten Island neighborhoods have filed far more homeless complaints than others through mid-October, with the 10301 ZIP code, which includes St. George, Tompkinsville, New Brighton, Grymes Hill, Sunnyside, Randall Manor and part of Livingston, accounting for 88 complaints, which was more than twice as many as the next closest ZIP code.

Here’s a look at how many homeless complaints have been filed in each Staten Island ZIP code through the first nine-plus months of 2024.

10301 (St. George, Tompkinsville, New Brighton, Grymes Hill, Sunnyside, Randall Manor and part of Livingston)

• 88 homeless complaints

10302 (Port Richmond and Elm Park)

• 23 homeless complaints

10303 (Mariners Harbor)

4 homeless complaints

10304 (Clifton, Concord, Emerson Hill, Stapleton, Todt Hill and part of Dongan Hills)

• 7 homeless complaints

10305 (Arrochar, Fort Wadsworth, Grasmere, Ocean Breeze, Rosebank, Shore Acres, South Beach and part of Dongan Hills)

• 16 homeless complaints

10306 (Egbertville, Grant City, Midland Beach, New Dorp, New Dorp Beach, Oakwood, Richmond and part of Dongan Hills)

• 21 homeless complaints

10307 (Tottenville)

• 1 homeless complaint

• 10308 (Great Kills and Bay Terrace)

  • 1 homeless complaint

  10309 (Pleasant Plains, Richmond Valley, Prince’s Bay, Charleston, Rossville and Woodrow)

  • 15 homeless complaints

  10310 (West Brighton and part of Livingston)

  • 6 homeless complaints

  10312 (Annadale, Arden Heights, Eltingville, Greenridge and Huguenot)

  • 11 homeless complaints

  10314 (Bulls Head, Castleton Corners, Graniteville, Meiers Corners, New Springville, Travis, Westerleigh and Willowbrook)

• 31 homeless complaints
  

Demand for Interpreting at NYC Homeless Shelters Spikes 400% Since 2020

New York City’s homeless shelters have seen a staggering rise in interpreting requests since 2020. According to a September 2024 Mayor’s Management Report (MMR), requests for telephonic interpreting (OPI) increased fivefold, from 18,660 in 2020 to 107,083 in 2024. 

The jump in interpreting requests follows a massive influx of migrants and asylum seekers, with a reported 210,000 coming to New York City since 2022. 

At the same time, New York’s Department of Homeless Services (DHS) has seen an 89% increase in DHS shelter occupancy compared to the end of 2022. According to the MMR, “tens of thousands” of migrants remain at DHS sites as well as in emergency shelters run by other city agencies.

The MMR does not indicate what percentage of DHS site and shelter residents have limited English proficiency (LEP), nor does it quantify what portion of DHS’ daily or annual spend is for language services.

The MMR also attributed the increase in requests in part to more participating shelters and greater client/staff awareness of language services.

The report, however, does not capture the full scope of language services DHS provides occupants, since it only tracks the number of OPI requests. Spanish-speaking residents also have access to on-site interpreters and bilingual staff.

The discrepancy in language services for non-Spanish-speaking LEP migrants has not gone unnoticed, as demonstrated by an April 2024 City Council hearing that focused on the experiences of black migrants, including challenges some African migrants have encountered when trying to communicate with shelter staff.

New York’s Local Law 30 requires covered agencies — those providing direct public services or emergency services — to “translate commonly distributed documents into 10 designated languages,” which would likely cover Arabic and French, spoken by some African migrants. The requirement to provide OPI “in at least 100 languages” may or may not also apply to Wolof, Fulani, and Bambara, among other requested African languages. 

New York City is not the only metropolitan area struggling to house and accommodate new migrants, with cities such as Chicago requesting billions of dollars in aid from the federal government. Exact numbers of migrants in major cities, and the costs associated with housing and other services, tend to vary since few estimates are comprehensive, but current data show no signs of a slowdown.

By Seyma Albarino

Senior Staff Writer at Slator. Trained interpreter and aspiring minimalist. Fan of dystopian fiction, not headlines. Based in Chicago.