NEW YORK — New York City plans to build a live-in “safe space” care facility for homeless people with severe mental illness who are undergoing treatment and discharge from city hospitals, Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday. Announced.
The program, dubbed “Bridge Home,” aims to stop the “revolving door” by admitting patients who have been repeatedly hospitalized and filling gaps in care left by discharged patients with nowhere to go. Adams said.
“The new facility will provide a safe space for New Yorkers with mental illness to live, heal and be cared for, allowing them to receive the life-changing support they need,” Adams said. He spoke from the atrium of Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan.
“It also helps reduce unnecessary emergency department visits and hospitalizations. If we don’t get people who are dealing with medical issues, diabetes, heart disease, asthma off the streets, they’re going to end up in the emergency room.” “We’re going to be able to do that,” Adams said.
The plan would house patients for six to 12 months, provide them with their own rooms, three meals a day, and provide on-site medical care including therapy, medication assistance, and substance use disorder treatment. . The ultimate goal is to graduate the patient, supportive housingsaid Dr. Mitchell Katz, director of the city’s public hospital system.
The city has not yet determined where the 100-bed, $13 million facility will be located, according to a spokesperson for the mayor. Mr Adams said: I want to increase involuntary hospitalizations.said the program, a controversial initiative to take people who are considered a threat to themselves or others off the streets and into hospitals, is scheduled to be implemented in 2027.
Supporters criticized the announcement for its lack of detail.
“Tackling homelessness requires meaningful and comprehensive new investments in affordable housing and mental health care systems, with strong community collaboration. The detailed announcements and the mayor’s plan to curb homelessness in the city do not reflect that urgency,” said Beth Harolds, senior staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union.
“If we don’t see this kind of investment from city leaders soon, we have incredibly dark days ahead, especially with the incoming Trump administration.”
Mr. Adams announced. $650 million mental health fund in his talk last week over the next five years. state addresswhere he also announced plans to use some of that money to build more Safe Haven beds, shelter beds for people with mental illnesses and addictions.
In his speech, he also pledged to build 100,000 new homes in Manhattan.
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