December 18, 2022 11:59 p.m.
Adams' directive targets people who are experencing severe mental illness and who cannot "meet basic living needs," which includes food, shelter and healthcare. / Photo by Jon Tyson via Unsplash
City police officers and mobile crisis teams will involuntarily hospitalize more people experiencing severe mental illness from the streets and subways, following a directive from Mayor Eric Adams last month. He clarified existing New York State Mental Hygeine Law guidelines for when a person may be involuntarily hospitalized; a person who “appears to be mentally ill and displays an inability to meet basic living needs” may be removed, according to the directive.
“If they are a threat to themselves by virtue of their inability to care for their basic needs – food, shelter, healthcare, those types of things – that can become a basis for an involuntary commitment,” said Brendan McGuire, chief counsel to the mayor and city hall. People who lack these basic needs are often experiencing homelessness.
The large majority of unsheltered homeless New Yorkers are people living with mental illness or other severe health problems, according to the advocacy group Coalition for the Homeless.
There are seven hospitals that offer comprehensive psychiatric emergency programs — only one, Bellevue Hospital, is in Midtown Manhattan, where most 311 calls about unhoused people are made. Across all city public hospitals only 50 additional beds were made available at the time of Adams' announcement.
"Homeless people are more likely to be the victims of crimes than the perpetrators, but Mayor Adams has continually scapegoated homeless people and others with mental illness as violent. Further, his focus on involuntary transport and treatment ignores that many people cannot access psychiatric care even on a voluntary basis," said Jacquelyn Simone, policy director for the Coalition for the Homeless.