New York Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan to involuntarily hospitalize homeless people deemed psychiatrically ill on Tuesday. The city councilor decided on this measure in order to fight against the growing insecurity in the city.
“If people with serious mental illness are homeless and pose a danger to themselves, we have a moral obligation to help them get the treatment and care they need,” the mayor said. democrat. A former police officer, Eric Adams has made the fight against violence the basis of his municipal policy.
A “myth that must disappear” according to the mayor
A bill is due in 2023 in the New York State legislature and executive. It provides for the intervention on the public highway and in the metro of the police, security, public health and social assistance services in order to arrest and forcibly hospitalize homeless people suspected of suffering from mental and psychiatric disorders.
“There continues to be a mistaken belief that we could only help someone against their will if they are violent, suicidal or present a risk of immediate danger”, argued Eric Adams. “It’s a myth that needs to go. We will do everything to help those who suffer from mental illnesses that put them in danger and prevent them from meeting their basic needs. »
Growing insecurity in the city
In power since January 2022, Eric Adams immediately pledged to drive the countless homeless people who survive there from the New York subway. There would be 50,000 homeless in the city, according to estimates by associations and social services.
The number of crimes and misdemeanors increased in New York in 2021, after the Covid-19 pandemic. The feeling of insecurity continued to grow in 2022 in certain neighborhoods and in the metro, especially after murders. According to weekly police statistics, 391 people were killed in New York between January 1 and November 27, compared to 440 for the same period of 2021.