Mayor Eric Adams: Good morning. Really good stuff today. And I just want to really thank Dr. Katz, [who] had the real vision to do the Bridge to Home program. We saw it, we thought about it, and it really came out of his years of experience. And someone raised a question at a town hall. Just goes to say, when people ask, we listen and we respond, and that's what he did.
And from the start of this administration, we have been really focused on homelessness. Homelessness and those who are living on our streets every day. Far too long, we were walking past them, acting like we were not seeing them. And this administration said no to that.
There's no dignity in living in an encampment, living on the streets, particularly with substance abuse issues and severe mental health issues. And we know that New Yorkers wanted a different response and a different approach. And it's no secret that too many New Yorkers are cycling between a revolving door system of our emergency rooms when they're dealing with severe medical issues and mental health issues, and they're back out on our streets repeatedly.
And battling chronic mental and physical illness, there's no way to resolve that by living on our streets. We needed a different approach, and that's what we're doing. We're combining housing with medical care. Starting this week, our new Bridge to Home facility will provide New Yorkers who are discharged from a hospital with a place to go beside the streets.
The Midtown West facility will allow guests in need a place to live, heal, and care for themselves, a place where they have a real shot at recovery and permanent housing. Approximately 78,000 behavioral health patients receive services annually in New York City Health + Hospitals, and nearly half of them experience homelessness. Think about that number for a moment. 78,000, 50 percent are experiencing homelessness. That's a terrible equation that we know we have to correct. Without a stable and safe place to live, the cycle of dysfunction continues.
But we want this cycle to end, and this is our initiative, Bridge to Home. So support centers will bridge the divide between critical hospital care and long-term housing solutions. And we're gonna do this by providing those in crisis with safe, clean rooms, and dedicated on-site clinical support. It's a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operation with professionals– ensuring that we can help give the care [to] people [when] needed.
We'll also provide behavioral health services, including medication management, individual and group therapy, and substance use disorder treatment, as well as regular social, therapeutic, and recreational opportunities. So this is not simply a way, station, or a temporary solution, but is a clear roadmap to real recovery and long-term success.
Bridge to Home facilities will reduce unnecessary emergency room visits and inpatient hospitalizations, decrease homelessness and reliance on shelters, reduce unnecessary encounters with law enforcement, and make our city safer, while improving quality of life for all New Yorkers, particularly those who are in need. Bridge to Home is part of a $650 million plan to address homelessness and support New Yorkers experiencing serious mental illness.
We've announced this in our State of the City Address, and now we are moving forward and implementing this important initiative. This is part of our overall plan of addressing the mental health crisis that not only our city, our state, but our entire country is facing. And this goes from our expanding our SCOUTand PATHoutreach models to connecting 3,500 people with permanent houses. It includes increasing the number of community clubhouses to expand safe haven beds. We have used every possible method to address this inhumane condition that far too many New Yorkers have found themselves in.
We have made generational changes in our housing policy to get stuff built in these long-term housing crises, and wrote to keep New Yorkers in homes already. So I want to really thank our team involved when we went to Albany to fight for the involuntary removal. We're now revisiting in Albany this legislative cycle for the Compassion Intervention Act. It's a follow-up to deal with those with chronic substance abuse, and give them the support that they need.
Both of these two initiatives will allow a hospital doctor to seek a court order to retain the person for treatment if they are unwilling to accept treatment on their own. These are not just quick fixes. This is going to the core of the problem and finding real solutions to implement the changes we're looking for.
And so I want to thank all of our partners. Again, Dr. Mitchell Katz, president and CEO of New York City Health + Hospitals, Dr. Ted Long, Dr. Omar Fattal, New York City Department of Social Services commissioner, Molly Park, and Brian Stettin, senior advisor for Severe Mental Health Illness.
This has been a full, all-hands-on-deck team approach to deal with a chronic issue that has been ignored for far too long. We want to break the cycle, and this is one of the tools we want to use. I want to bring on Dr. Mitch Katz to further explain the program. Doctor?
Dr. Mitchell Katz, CEO and President, NYC Health + Hospitals: Thank you so much, sir. Good morning, everybody. For 30 years, I have been pleading for the need for a program like this, in three different cities, with many mayors, with many elected officials, and Mayor Eric Adams is the first person who's actually made it happen, who's understood why this is so important.
And to help you understand it, I'm going to personalize it for a minute and ask you to think about what you would do if you had a family member who had a serious mental illness. You would help them to get hospitalized. They would be in one of the fine hospitals in New York City for two to three weeks, during which they would get 24-hour care, medication, loving doctors and nurses.
When they were no longer unable to care for themselves, when they were no longer psychotic, when they were on their correct medicines, you would take them home, and you would watch them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You would make sure that they took their medicines. You would make sure that they went to their visits. You would not just leave them alone. You would never go from 24-hour care to having somebody just in a shelter, and that is what is done across the country.
We don't have the ability to say, we need a step-down. Just like when you're in a cardiac care unit, we don't take you from the intensive care unit and discharge you. We step you down. And this is the appropriate step-down. This is going to enable people who got good treatment, where we spent a lot of money, a lot of effort, to get them on the right medications. We want them to stay on those medications. We don't want those medications lost as people are on the street. We wanna make sure people attend their visits. So now we will have a place.
The other reason I feel so strongly about this is it also connects to Housing First. Many of us feel very strongly about Housing First, meaning that housing makes things better. You don't have to wait for every problem to get solved to house someone. You should house someone, and then you'll see every problem gets solved, but you can't logistically go from a psychiatric hospitalization directly into permanent supportive housing. It's just not possible.
You have to identify the unit. You have to sign a lease. Sometimes the first step is to get someone an ID. So while we all believe in permanent supportive housing as the answer, we need a therapeutic place where we can keep people safe, where they can then work with a landlord, sign a lease, and then have a permanent place to live. And as the mayor has explained so well, this is going to break that cycle of shelter, and then back to the psychiatric emergency room, another admission repeating the same previous work, now all of which was lost. We want to break that cycle and get definitive treatment.
So with that, I want to tell you that whenever we have some difficult problem in New York City that's health-related to solve, it is solved by the team of Dr. Ted Long and Chris Keeley, who is here. And as I bring it up, I just remind all of you, they are the ones who did Test and Trace. Then they did vaccination, getting the highest vaccination rate of any city.
Then they did the Mpox epidemic and helped to abort it with their treatment. They created the show vans that provide healthcare to people who are right on the street. And then they did the humanitarian shelters. So you see, whenever we need something good to happen and to happen well, it is the team of Dr. Ted Long and Chris Keeley. Dr. Long?
Dr. Ted Long, Senior Vice President of Ambulatory Care, New York City Health + Hospitals: I wanted to start today by asking everybody to take a moment. Think for a moment about, in 20 years, what you'd want to do, see, accomplish. Think about it. Now, that period of time is the amount of time that people experiencing homelessness won't have. People who are unhoused die 20 years earlier than people who are housed.
I'm a primary care doctor in the Bronx. When I see my patients with serious mental illness that I know are unhoused or experiencing homelessness, that statistic is emblazoned in my mind. I know the patient I'm caring for in front of me is very likely going to have their life cut short. And it's heartbreaking.
Now, looking around here, everybody has had the experience of walking past a fellow New Yorker who is sleeping on the street, sometimes in the blistering cold, sometimes during a heat wave. Despite best intentions and despite our hope that that night they're gonna be okay, the reality is, as Dr. Katz said, people experiencing homelessness with serious mental illness get admitted to the hospital, they get started on life-saving medications, but then too often, when it's time for them to leave the hospital, they don't have anywhere to go where they can get the continued help that they need so they can stay on the life-saving medications that they were started on.
What happens then as a consequence is they go back into the cycle and the cycle goes all the way around and they land sleeping on the street right where they began. That's why today is so important. Today we announce a new model, a new way of doing things where patients with serious mental illness, when they're ready to leave the hospital, instead of going back to the street, can go into a home-like environment where they can continue to have a supportive recovery with 24/7 around-the-clock mental health care from the world-class behavioral health team at Bellevue Hospital. And that's why today is special.
Today is the day where New York City says we are no longer going to walk by our fellow New Yorkers with serious mental illness who are sleeping on the street. We're gonna offer this new model, this new care. We're going to break the cycle. We're going to give New Yorkers with serious mental illness the chance that they deserve. Thank you.
Now, I'd like to introduce our next speaker who is an expert in this area, a psychiatrist, Dr. Michelle Izmirly, who's in charge of our outpatient behavioral health care at New York City Health +Hospitals. Dr. Izmirly.
Dr. Michelle Izmirly, Psychiatrist, New York City Health + Hospitals: Lower this a little. Hi, I'm Michelle Izmirly. I'm a psychiatrist. I trained at Bellevue Hospital Center, and I've been overseeing ambulatory behavioral health for over 20 years at New York City Health + Hospitals. I've witnessed, as you've heard, far too long, far too many patients falling through the cracks after discharge from inpatient, not because they lacked motivation, but because they lacked the support they needed.
One patient I'll never forget, a man in his 30s, he came to New York to make it big as a musician. He had a history of schizophrenia and homelessness. After an extended stabilization on inpatient, he was excited to be discharged to the shelter and to come to our clinic. Unfortunately, without a phone, social support, or housing, he never made that appointment. Weeks later, he returned to the emergency room. The system did not fail to recognize his needs, but we did fail to meet him where he was.
Sadly, his story is not unique. Nearly, nationally, 30 to 50 percent of patients discharged from inpatient or emergency behavioral health services fail to meet their appointments. These are often patients that you've heard with serious mental illness, homelessness, and other social determinants of health that make traditional ambulatory behavioral health care inaccessible. That's why I'm so excited about Bridge to Home.
As you've heard, Bridge to Home is an innovative model that brings New York City Health + Hospitals robust ambulatory behavioral health directly into transitional housing. It is the continuum we've all been waiting for, where clinical and social needs are met in one place. By opening Bridge to Home and integrating clinical care with social and housing services, we will reduce barriers, we will improve engagement, and we will support long-term recovery. Thank you.
Mayor Adams: Thank you.
Question: On the facility that's near here, can you reinforce for us how long folks who are discharged from the hospital can stay there, and how would you distinguish that facility from a shelter?
Dr. Long: Thanks, Andrew. So our intention is for people that are ready for discharge from the hospitals to stay at our new site for up to about a year. During that time, the initial focus will be on having a home-like environment so they can get to know what it's like to take care of themselves, take their laundry to the laundromat, stay on the right medications. And to make sure they succeed, we're going to have a world-class behavioral health team around the clock, onsite, offering mental health care, which is a unique aspect of this site here.
If it takes a little bit longer than a year, that's okay, but our goal is for people that are at our site here to be stable on their medications, complete the housing application with our excellent social work team, and then to succeed on the run when they're able to leave.
[Crosstalk.]
Mayor Adams: Let’s do a couple off topics. Thanks, folks, thanks for coming out. Good work. We're gonna do a few off topics. Marcia?
Question: You gonna take my question today?
Mayor Adams: I took it yesterday.
Question: So, [inaudible] Andrew Cuomo is meeting with about 80 business leaders in real estate and tourism in an emergency meeting [inaudible]—
Mayor Adams: I'm not hearing you.
Question: Trying to find someone to beat Zohran Mamdani. I wonder, how do you feel about these business leaders [inaudible] Andrew Cuomo is the answer to beating Mamdani? And what would you say to them about what you should be [inaudible]?
Mayor Adams: There's a series of meetings I'm having with business leaders, real estate developers. So, there's a series of meetings, and I think you look around here. Look behind me. Hudson Yards, more jobs in the city's history, more small businesses in the city's history, all of the things that the soil of business needs to grow business.
And so, right now, the concern is what the Democratic primary winner would do to the city. So, I don't blame them for sitting down with Andrew and whomever else. We need to make sure that this city does not go into a state where decriminalizing prostitution, where we don't go into a state of emptying out Rikers Island. He said 3,000 people he’s going to remove off Rikers Island. All of these things would impact business in the city.
Today, I had an invest summit where some of the largest investors are coming to the city. They want to know the city's going to be stable. So, they should meet with all of us.
Question: [Inaudible.]
Mayor Adams: Listen, people look at the polls and do their forecasting. And I cannot share enough, seven weeks out from the primary, the polymarkets had Cuomo 87 percent to win. 87 percent, seven weeks out. Mamdani, I think, was 4 percent or 5 percent. They had him in one poll, had him winning by over 50 percent in the polls.
So, when you look at these polls, you make these determinations, and I'm sure business leaders look at forecasts. So, I don't see anything wrong with what they're doing. And as things will change, they are going to change. Andrew spent $35 million, and he lost to Mamdani by double digits. And so, I'm sure you're going to see a series of these meetings the closer we get to the election.
Question: On the Siena poll, it does show, if it's just Cuomo against Mamdani, 48-44, at this date and time. So, if Mamdani is an existential threat, why would you and Curtis not try to prevent that from happening, and at least create this choice for New Yorkers, one-on-one? Why would you not do that?
Mayor Adams: And what you're asking, I think what you're asking is important, because one would look and rationally believe that, okay, let's just do it this way. There was a one-on-one race, primary. He beat him by 12 percent. So, are we going to do this all over again? We bought into that the last time. We bought into him being 36 points on the poll. We bought into the day before the election that he was up by 10 points. We bought into all this before. And as I move around the city, and visit senior centers, shake hands, walk the streets, like, where is he?
We have seen this before. Campaigning is not walking the streets of the Hamptons. It is walking the streets of Harlem. And so, are we going to be duped again? Now, do it once, shame on me, or you, or me, or you. Shame on you. Do it twice, shame on me. I mean, this is like deja vu. Didn't we hear this before? Didn't we hear before that he's the best person to beat Mamdani? We heard that. We saw the polls, these same polls. I'm amazed that we're using the same evidence to drive home the case that we used before, and we saw what the results are.
When you're running against a young, energetic candidate that is willing to walk from one tip of the hand to the other, that has the energy, you need someone with that energy, and you have to match it, and you have to really energize the voters. And so, it doesn't surprise me that after spending $35 million, he's where he is. Now, it's my opportunity to spend my money and get my message out.
Question: Would you rather have Mamdani as mayor than Cuomo?
Mayor Adams: I would rather have neither one. They both, you know, to do a comparative analysis, bail reform, Andrew. Emptying Rikers Island, 3,000 dangerous, most dangerous people, Zohran. Dealing with Raise the Age problems, Andrew. Not giving our children the benefits that they need so they don't have repeated crime, Zohran.
So, if you do the— it's two people on the same side of the coin. So, I think, to say who I would rather have as mayor, the best [answer] I can say is Eric.
Question: You have invested a lot of time, a lot of political capital, in dealing with the mental health crisis on the streets of the city. How concerned are you that programs like these, as well as your criminal justice initiatives, might not be followed up on, should you lose the election?
Mayor Adams: Yeah, well, that's a real hypothetical. I think what you're going to find in the years to come, not only in the next four years, but in the next 20 years to come, what we have successfully done is not place band-aids on institutional problems. We have built out pipelines that people can duplicate, not only whoever's the mayor in years to come, but in countries.
What we're doing around homelessness, people can benefit from that. The 426,000 new homes we’re building, people can benefit from that. Public safety, technology, innovation. People are going to benefit from the foundation that I put in place for this city for a long time. And three, four years later, mayors are going to take credit for what they've done, but people are going to peel back and say, “Well, man, didn't Eric build that platform?” I am building a platform that our city will never be the same because of what we have done and what we are creating. Take two more.
Question: I wanted to ask you two separate questions, excuse me. First one, last week, your campaign put out a statement that said no formal offers have been made to you about a job with the Trump administration. Does that mean that there have been discussions about a possible [inaudible] for you in that administration?
Mayor Adams: Can you say that again?
Question: That there have been at least discussions or negotiations?
Mayor Adams: See, here's the problem with answering that question. Because it's that, I always say this when I speak to you, ladies and gentlemen, it's the bigger than the bread box thing. It never stops. I answered this the best and the clearest way possible, and you want to keep peeling back another letter. Well, did someone write a signal on a napkin? Well, did someone whistle a song that sounded like a job offer? It just never stops.
No one made an offer to me, and I can't get any clearer than that. They didn't send up smoke signals, they didn't play it on the drum, they did not do sign language. So I don't know how to be any clearer, and I'm not going to go down that hole of, well, did they whistle? How good will it be to go to South America? Isn't that an offer? Come on, Kelly.
Question: I wanted to ask you about, I just want to ask you about the Charter Revision Commission and the City Council trying to knock that off. Your response to that, the charter revision or the Board of Elections meeting right now, what do you think about their effort to knock off their charter revision ballot?
Mayor Adams: What I find fascinating is when you see those people who yell the loudest about government and how government should not big step the power of the people, they lead the way in doing so. Give it to the people, let the people vote on it. So why do this backroom, which is really illegal, what they were attempting to do, but it just exposes those who call themselves so self-righteous on, the people should speak and government should speak.
This is a charter commission that's going to go on a ballot where the people will have the right to vote on it. Isn't that what they say they want? So there's a level of hypocrisy when they're now trying to circumvent the people. I say, let the people speak.
Question: I just wanted to ask one more, trying to get a little bit more clarity on what Kelly had asked about. When your campaign said that you would, listen, if you called upon to serve your country, is an ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia something you would consider or is that something you would rule out as maybe not something you would be interested in doing?
Mayor Adams: The job I want is to be the mayor of the City of New York. That's the job I want. Two jobs that I enjoy doing, one was being a police officer, protecting the people of the city, and the second is being the mayor of the City of New York, laying down foundational issues that are turning around the betrayal of everyday working class people.
I am just really so pleased of being the mayor. It's a privilege to serve as a police officer and as the mayor, and that's the job I want, and that's the job I'm looking forward to doing again. Thank you.
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