Mayor Adams’ new plan to force treatment upon homeless mentally ill draws criticism and praise
The New York Daily NewsNov 30, 2022
Mayor Adams’ announcement that the city will more aggressively use a state law dictating when the mentally ill can involuntarily be placed into care immediately prompted a backlash on Tuesday — as well as praise from some unlikely quarters.
“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,” said
“His focus on involuntary transport and treatment ignores that many people cannot access psychiatric care even on a voluntary basis,” Simone said.
She suggested that a better solution would involve “expanding access to voluntary inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care, offering individual hotel rooms to all unsheltered people and cutting through red tape that has left far too many permanent supportive housing units sitting vacant.”
In his announcement,
While the Coalition slammed
In a joint statement, the
“He is correct that homeless New Yorkers with mental health conditions have the right to health care, housing, treatment, respect, dignity and the hope that their futures will be safe and illnesses treated,” the statement said.
“He is also correct that
But hours after releasing that statement, a Legal Aid spokesman told the
Many other initial public reactions to Adams’ plan were negative.
”The federal and state constitutions impose strict limits on the government’s ability to detain people experiencing mental illness — limits that the mayor’s proposed expansion is likely to violate,” said
Lieberman drew a parallel between Adams’ policy and hardline homeless enforcement practices used by former Mayor
“For the mayor, the visibility of homelessness is an emergency because of its PR ramifications; actually getting people into housing is far lower on the list of priorities,” Hughes said.
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