Providing more funding for his efforts to move homeless people off the streets of New York City, Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday that he would propose to invest $171 million in services for the homeless, including funding for 1,400 specialized shelter beds.
The spending comes as the city implements an aggressive plan to remove homeless people from shelters and the subway system.
Mr. Adams’ plan would expand on a program started under his predecessor, Bill de Blasio, to provide dedicated shelter beds to New Yorkers. go out – beds in high-quality facilities offer more services and have fewer restrictions, including curfews. Some have private rooms instead of barracks beds.
Mr. Adams had previously announced the addition of 500 beds to the program as part of an effort to remove homeless people from the subways; City officials said the proposal announced on Sunday would expand the total number of such beds to more than 4,000.
The program aims to ease the transition off the street for homeless people who are struggling with mental health issues and substance abuse. While facilities vary in size, they tend to be smaller than dormitories, although the mayor’s office has not yet been able to provide details.
Mr. Adams, a Democrat who took office in January, has focused on the city’s public safety and pandemic recovery. in the first 100 days of administration. He was under pressure to do more to help homeless New Yorkers after drawing criticism about the cleanup of the plantations.
The mayor is in the midst of budget negotiations with the City Council and plans to deliver his executive budget proposal in a keynote address Tuesday at the Kings Theater in Brooklyn. He has yet to release a detailed housing plan despite promising to do so.
In February, Mr. Adams proposed spending $2.1 billion on the Department of Homeless Services in his $98.5 billion preliminary budget proposal.
The final budget must be approved by the Council by 1 July.
The mayor has defended police raids on homeless camps as crucial to the city’s revitalization. Several raids were captured in video, widely shared on social media, showing officers tossing the belongings of homeless New Yorkers in the trash.
“We have to let go of the belief that allowing people to live on the streets in fireplaces, tents, cardboard boxes, without access to mental health services, drug paraphernalia, substances Human waste inside these tents is decent.” a television interview.
The allocation of additional services to the homeless was welcomed by City Council speaker Adrienne Adams.
“This $171 million investment in solutions that can better support New Yorkers who don’t want to transition from homelessness is the right approach and an important step forward.” important to our city,” said Adams, a Democrat, in a statement.
In his announcement, Mr. Adams sought to highlight the work of outreach teams, who he said convinced 700 people living on the streets and subways to seek shelter.
That access is sometimes hindered by the shelters themselves, which can be crowded and dangerous, leading to some prefer the street. City statistics from January show that less than a third Among those living on the subway, those persuaded to enter the shelter remained there at the end of the month.
The mayor’s proposal would allocate $12 million in outreach funding and create three new outreach centers that provide medical and behavioral health services.
Craig Hughes, a senior social worker with the Urban Justice Center who represents the city’s homeless, says that what his clients really need is a private room as well as a home location. permanent accommodation that they can access without going through the shelter system. While praising the mayor’s proposal to add more shelter beds, he said it won’t do much to offset the sweeping sweeps of homeless encampments.
Mr Hughes said: “His entire homeless policy is about getting rid of the homeless.
Emma G. Fitzsimmons contributed reporting.
