Mayor Adams Keeps "Mental Health Week" Moving by Announcing Over 11,000 Engagements, 3,000 Services Delivered to New Yorkers in City’s Subway System Through Successful Outreach Program Focused on Homelessness and Severe Mental Illness

March 20, 2025

Watch the video here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVAcExizEAI

Adams Administration's Subway Safety Plan Has Connected More Than 8,400 New Yorkers Living in Subway System to Shelter

Part of Adams Administration's "Mental Health Week," Highlighting City's Multi-Agency Efforts to Connect New Yorkers with Mental Health Services

New York – New York City Mayor Eric Adams today kept "Mental Health Week " moving by announcing a key milestone in the city's Partnership Assistance for Transit Homelessness (PATH) program, which helps keep New Yorkers safe and healthy on the subway system. Since launching in August 2024, PATH has already had over 11,000 engagements with unhoused New Yorkers and delivered services – including shelter, meals, and medical help – over 3,000 times. Additionally, continuing to address the quality-of-life concerns of New Yorkers, members of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) issued 290 summonses and removed 911 people from the transit system for various violations of the Metropolitan Transit Authority's (MTA) rules of conduct or state law. The PATH initiative brings together members of the New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS), NYC Health + Hospitals, and the NYPD Transit Bureau to connect New Yorkers living unsheltered in the subway system with shelter and care, and provides support to those with severe mental illness if unhoused and in the transit system. PATH teams consist of DHS nurses and outreach staff working alongside NYPD transit police who conduct outreach overnight at subway stations across Manhattan from 8:00 PM to 12:00 PM the next day.

This week, the Adams administration is celebrating "Mental Health Week," highlighting the city's multi-agency efforts to support New Yorkers efforts to address mental health, ranging from serious mental illness to expanding resources to underserved communities – all supporting Mayor Adams' 2025 State of the City commitment to make New York City the best place to live and raise a family.

"Keeping New Yorkers safe is the number one commitment in our administration, especially on the subways, which millions of riders rely on every day," said Mayor Adams. "When we came into office, we said the days of ignoring people in need – on our streets and in our subways – were over. Despite opposition, we continue to say 'no' to the cycle of homelessness that too often results when people with severe mental illness aren't able to get help or are unable to recognize that they need help. That is why, as we recognize 'Mental Health Week,' I am so proud to share the great work our PATH team is doing to reach our most vulnerable. By using a co-response model that combines law enforcement with trained outreach and mental health professionals, this dynamic group can respond to any issue: whether it's public safety, homelessness, or mental health. In a short period, PATH teams have already had over 11,000 engagements and delivered services over 3,000 times to New Yorkers in need. This program, combined with our Subway Safety Plan – which has already connected over 8,400 New Yorkers to shelter, with over 860 people placed in permanent, affordable housing – and our work to build unprecedented levels of supportive housing, means we are delivering on our mission to make New York City safer, more affordable, and the best place to raise a family."

"Through our intensified subway outreach efforts, we've connected 8,400 New Yorkers in need to shelter, and with the expansion of proven-effective models like Safe Havens, we've helped nearly 3,000 New Yorkers move in to permanent homes," said New York City Department of Social Services Commissioner Molly Wasow Park. "With more recent initiatives like PATH we're strengthening interagency collaboration to support harder to reach New Yorkers who are in critical need of quality care in safe and stable settings. We are grateful for our ongoing partnership with NYC Health + Hospitals, the Department of Health, and the New York City Police Department as we work together to help some of our most vulnerable New Yorkers take the first step toward stabilizing their lives."

"The PATH program is an integral part of our mission to deter crime, improve quality-of-life conditions in our subway, and protect all New Yorkers," said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. "The members of the NYPD and our mental health partners go into the transit system every night to provide our most vulnerable populations with the resources they need and deserve, while providing some peace of mind to daily commuters. Crime on the subway is down double digits for the third month in a row proving that we can enhance public safety without compromising our moral duty to help those in need."

PATH is a major advancement in the city's embrace of "co-response" – a crisis response model gaining traction nationally, in which clinical professionals are paired with police to engage with members of the public in need of medical care and/or social services. Participating police officers receive specialized training in crisis de-escalation and allow their clinical partners to take the lead once safety is assured. While co-response is not meant to replace traditional outreach conducted without police involvement, in certain situations, the presence of police affords clinicians a greater sense of personal safety, enabling more meaningful engagement with those in need. Co-response also greatly enhances the ability of a clinician to initiate transport to a hospital for evaluation in circumstances where an individual exhibits symptoms of mental illness presenting a danger to themselves or others. While in the field, the interagency PATH teams engage everyone they see who appears to be unsheltered, offering individualized support based on the person's expressed or observed challenges.

In February 2022, Mayor Adams launched the Subway Safety Plan to address public safety concerns and support people experiencing homelessness and severe mental illness on New York City's subways. Since the start of the plan, over 8,400 New Yorkers have been connected to shelter, with over 860 now in permanent, affordable housing.

Mayor Adams has been on the forefront of implementing successful interventions, major investments, and direct services for people struggling with mental illness. In January 2025, following a 2025 State of the City commitment, the Adams administration took unprecedented action to curb homelessness and support people with severe mental illness by making a $650 million investment in the city's most vulnerable populations. Additionally, the administration unveiled an innovative model, "Bridge to Home," where NYC Health + Hospitals will offer a supportive, home-like environment to patients with serious mental illness who are ready for discharge from the hospital but do not have a place to go. By offering patients intensive treatment and comprehensive support, Bridge to Home aims to keep patients on a path toward sustained success, reducing unnecessary emergency room visits and inpatient hospitalizations, decreasing street homelessness and reliance on shelters, and lowering interactions with the criminal justice system.

The Adams administration has made the largest investment in New York City history in creating specialized shelter beds to address street homelessness. The city has opened 1,500 Safe Haven and stabilization beds since the start of the administration and aggressively expanded street outreach teams. Thanks to these important investments, the Adams administration has connected nearly 3,000 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness to permanent housing citywide.

Despite relentlessly delivering on this issue at the city level, the Adams administration understands that updates to state law are necessary to ensure that those experiencing severe mental illness get the support they need. That is why, two years ago, the Adams administration announced an ambitious plan to support New Yorkers living with untreated severe mental illness and experiencing homelessness, which included a new city protocol on involuntary removals and a package of proposed state legal reforms to maximize the city's ability to serve this population. The Supportive Interventions Act would ensure that those struggling with severe mental illness receive the help they need, instead of the current and unacceptable status quo of waiting for something tragic to happen.

This work is also supported by other efforts the Adams administration has undertaken to address the needs of New Yorkers with serious mental illness. As described in "Care, Community, Action: A Mental Health Plan for NYC," the administration is committed to taking a public health approach to supporting people with severe mental illness, focusing on prevention and intervention, including by:

• Expanding access to mobile treatment capacity with five more Intensive Mobile Treatment teams that went live in December 2023 to serve people with high service needs.
• Expanding access to clubhouse services through awards that will serve up to 3,750 additional clients.
• Releasing the city's first ever State of Mental Health Report and Special Report on Social Media and Mental Health.
• Promoting 988, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline and crisis line for all.
• Developing a single-access system in collaboration with New York state to consolidate and streamline how New Yorkers with severe mental illness access services, which is expected to go live early next year.
• Expanding hospital-based response initiative to support people who have experienced a nonfatal overdose.

The Adams administration has taken repeated actions to help those with mental health needs over the last three years. Just this week, Mayor Adams announced accomplishments in the first year of the "Behavioral Health Blueprint" that include restoring and maximizing inpatient capacity, expanding access to outpatient services, increasing services to special populations, enhancing social work, care management, and peer services, preventing violence and increasing safety, and building the behavioral health workforce.

Among Mayor Adams' top public safety priorities has been addressing transit crime and homelessness in New York City subways through enhancements in both social services and traditional law enforcement. In February 2022, Mayor Adams first launched the Subway Safety Plan to address public safety concerns and support people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, including some of the city's hardest-to-reach New Yorkers experiencing mental health and substance use challenges on New York City's subways. In the fall of 2022, Mayor Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul deployed an additional 1,200 police officers to subway platforms and trains each day. Following the end of that deployment in 2023, Mayor Adams directed the NYPD to surge an additional 1,000 police officers into the subway system each day to help keep New Yorkers safe and bring overall crime in the transit system down. In January 2025, in partnership with the Adams administration and Governor Hochul, the NYPD began deployment of two police officers on every train during overnight hours, seven days per week.

These safety efforts are paying off, with overall crime in the subway system down 27.9 percent year to date. The double-digit year-to-date declines resulted from a 36.4 percent decline in January and a 15.1 percent drop in February. The year-to-date statistics also follow 2024's conclusion as the second straight year of crime dropping in the subway system. Last year, overall crime in the transit system fell by 5.4 percent compared to 2023, as the number of riders increased by 4 percent.