Monday, December 05, 2022

New York City to Involuntarily Remove Mentally Ill People From Streets


Mayor Eric Adams directed the police and emergency medical workers to hospitalize people they deemed too mentally ill to care for themselves, even if they posed no threat to others.



In a speech on Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams issued a directive telling city agencies to transport people with severe mental illness to hospitals.Credit...Benjamin Norman for The New York Times


By Andy Newman and Emma G. Fitzsimmons

Published Nov. 29, 2022
Updated Dec. 1, 2022

Acting to address “a crisis we see all around us” toward the end of a year that has seen a string of high-profile crimes involving homeless people, Mayor Eric Adams announced a major push on Tuesday to remove people with severe, untreated mental illness from the city’s streets and subways.

Mr. Adams, who has made clearing homeless encampments a priority since taking office in January, said the effort would require involuntarily hospitalizing people who were a danger to themselves, even if they posed no risk of harm to others, arguing the city had a “moral obligation” to help them.



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