Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams continue to implement short-term measures to address homelessness among mentally ill New Yorkers, often conflating these issues with public safety. Hochul's repeated initiatives, including deploying NYPD officers and the National Guard, offer little progress towards the underlying mental health crisis. Despite directives aimed at providing psychiatric evaluations, there remains a critical lack of long-term hospital beds. The fundamental issue persists: the existing strategies have failed to address the systemic needs of those in crisis, leaving many without proper support and intervention.
For one thing, sending in the National Guard or assigning officers on trains does not miraculously produce the long-term hospital beds people in crisis need.
A hospital bed is not a plan. It is merely a part of a plan.
The most important question is: Why has nothing changed since the governor's 2022 directive?
Their single focus on conflating homelessness with public safety offers little more than compassionate window dressing while trying to look tough on crime.
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