Homeless in NYC involuntarily hospitalized due to mental illness | USA TODAY

New York City is confronting and involuntarily hospitalizing homeless people with severe mental illnesses, according to Mayor Eric Adams.

RELATED: NYC Mayor Eric Adams declares state of emergency for migrant influx

The country's largest city is giving officials discretion to hospitalize people living on the streets and experiencing severe mental illness, even if it's against the person's wishes, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday. In his Tuesday address, Adams described city residents with severe and untreated mental illness who sleep on subway cars and park benches and said their living situations are "a crisis we see all around us."

The mayor's directive would give outreach workers, city hospitals and first responders, including police, discretion to hospitalize anyone they deem a danger to themselves or unable to care for themselves. As part of its initiative, the city is developing a phone line that would allow police officers to consult with clinicians.

Experts say homeless people may have a much harder time accessing consistent treatment for mental illnesses because their everyday lives can be so precarious. At the same time, mental illness may make it considerably more difficult for someone without a place to live to find stable employment and pay for housing.

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46 comments

  1. This is wonderful. My brother refused mental help, eventually he did end up trying to hurt someone. I lived in fear of him, he’s very intelligent. He’s better now.

    1. same I have a cousin like that and his father was always trying to help but he wouldn’t listen when offered housing and work, he ended up homeless and still doesnt get the help. These people need help so sad, its necessary and they end up dead.

    2. @Alison McMahon he ended up on the streets and on drugs, tried to stab someone and was institutionalized for two years. He just got home, he seems better, time will tell. He’s a danger to himself and others always was.

    3. @Debra Brooks Thank you. I hope he hangs in there. If he’s on medication, make sure he sees his prescriber frequently and stays on the medication. The problem with the board and care home approach is that people feel better after a while, go off their meds, wander off, and it’s back to square 1.
      Every piece of anecdotal information is helpful in designing solutions.

      Just came back from grocery store. Salvation Army sitting with the red kettle; standing next to him a man with a cardboard sign.

      I thought, should I bring him some food? If I do, I should bring it for the person who is sitting out there collecting money for others as well. I decided against it. I came out, I had two bananas. I thought I’d give him one. Same dilemma. Besides, what if he takes it as an insult. Then as I was taking my cart back, I thought, “I don’t want to see this again,” and out of the blue came a man saying, :Are you taking that back? I’ll take it for you.”

    4. @Mason Cain You have no idea what it is like to have this kind of problem in the house. Someone’s brother was picked up on the streets repeatedly and they wanted him placed somewhere for safety and were told that they couldn’t do anything until he actually harmed someone.
      We do have red flag laws: Those only go off after someone is on record as having done something.
      It’s dicey: you don’t want people being committed on dicey grounds either. How do we protect society and the individual both?

    5. Sadly, nowadays street homeless are drugs addicts, and they are addicted to cocktail of nasty chemicals such as fentanyl, horse tranquilizer, elephant tranquilizer, sedative benzo, rat poison, nitazenes chemicals, P2P based meth, wasp dope, and other nasty stuff. That is in the pills they smoke all the time. They are quickly damaged mentally and physically beyond the point of repair. Street addicts gradually destroy everything around themselves. The only thing they really wanna is to be as close as possible to their fentanyl dealers. If they are functional, they work as fentanyl dealers till they get zombified. We will never reduce street homelessness without reducing the amount of fentanyl and other nasty drugs available everywhere.

  2. Why do they always go difficult path? How complicated is to follow laws and just prosecute criminals and keep them in prison? Now this. Who will decide who should be lock and for how long? I’m old enough to remember how this could end up. Color Red, direction East.

    1. Sadly, nowadays street homeless are drugs addicts, and they are addicted to cocktail of nasty chemicals such as fentanyl, horse tranquilizer, elephant tranquilizer, sedative benzo, rat poison, nitazenes chemicals, P2P based meth, wasp dope, and other nasty stuff. That is in the pills they smoke all the time. They are quickly damaged mentally and physically beyond the point of repair. Street addicts gradually destroy everything around themselves. The only thing they really wanna is to be as close as possible to their fentanyl dealers. If they are functional, they work as fentanyl dealers till they get zombified. We will never reduce street homelessness without reducing the amount of fentanyl and other nasty drugs available everywhere.

  3. You ask for help, now they are doing something about it, if you don’t like it then take them into your home
    🤦🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️

    1. Sadly, nowadays street homeless are drugs addicts, and they are addicted to cocktail of nasty chemicals such as fentanyl, horse tranquilizer, elephant tranquilizer, sedative benzo, rat poison, nitazenes chemicals, P2P based meth, wasp dope, and other nasty stuff. That is in the pills they smoke all the time. They are quickly damaged mentally and physically beyond the point of repair. Street addicts gradually destroy everything around themselves. The only thing they really wanna is to be as close as possible to their fentanyl dealers. If they are functional, they work as fentanyl dealers till they get zombified. We will never reduce street homelessness without reducing the amount of fentanyl and other nasty drugs available everywhere.

  4. Thank you. We do need to arrange separate living and do it so everyone wins, has peace and happiness. De-institutionalizing people didn’t help. It’s rough to manage everyone’s personal freedoms. Everybody talks to themselves, especially with smart phones, but walking past people having full-blown arguments with themselves and gesticulating wildly is deeply unsettling to see. We don’t know what to do but to walk on by; it’s not good for anyone.
    Sometimes you stop to help and realize it’s beyond you. Other times it’s good to share some humanity with someone and have a chat. Two different sorts of housing and help needs right there.
    For public safety, get the wild ones housed permanently in a controlled environment where they can be the best they can be — and stay. Others need simply to get off the street and pull themselves together and continue working upward.
    I’m thinking of the women I have met on the street. Educated and personable and on the street and in need of a transition and trained help. I don’t know what to do. I went looking for one nice lady to give her some things where she said she stayed after hours and she wasn’t there. Imagine not having a place, even a place for help to find you.

    1. Sadly, nowadays street homeless are drugs addicts, and they are addicted to cocktail of nasty chemicals such as fentanyl, horse tranquilizer, elephant tranquilizer, sedative benzo, rat poison, nitazenes chemicals, P2P based meth, wasp dope, and other nasty stuff. That is in the pills they smoke all the time. They are quickly damaged mentally and physically beyond the point of repair. Street addicts gradually destroy everything around themselves. The only thing they really wanna is to be as close as possible to their fentanyl dealers. If they are functional, they work as fentanyl dealers till they get zombified. We will never reduce street homelessness without reducing the amount of fentanyl and other nasty drugs available everywhere.

  5. This won’t work out to good when one them is released and stops taking their meds and kills someone and the victims family sues everybody

    1. Sadly, nowadays street homeless are drugs addicts, and they are addicted to cocktail of nasty chemicals such as fentanyl, horse tranquilizer, elephant tranquilizer, sedative benzo, rat poison, nitazenes chemicals, P2P based meth, wasp dope, and other nasty stuff. That is in the pills they smoke all the time. They are quickly damaged mentally and physically beyond the point of repair. Street addicts gradually destroy everything around themselves. The only thing they really wanna is to be as close as possible to their fentanyl dealers. If they are functional, they work as fentanyl dealers till they get zombified. We will never reduce street homelessness without reducing the amount of fentanyl and other nasty drugs available everywhere.

  6. They will be dumped out in a few days with a script they possibly can’t/won’t fill. It’s terribly sad.

    1. Sadly, nowadays street homeless are drugs addicts, and they are addicted to cocktail of nasty chemicals such as fentanyl, horse tranquilizer, elephant tranquilizer, sedative benzo, rat poison, nitazenes chemicals, P2P based meth, wasp dope, and other nasty stuff. That is in the pills they smoke all the time. They are quickly damaged mentally and physically beyond the point of repair. Street addicts gradually destroy everything around themselves. The only thing they really wanna is to be as close as possible to their fentanyl dealers. If they are functional, they work as fentanyl dealers till they get zombified. We will never reduce street homelessness without reducing the amount of fentanyl and other nasty drugs available everywhere.

  7. In all honesty they need a whole task force for this on a national scale, with buildings for housing for those who just ended on the wrong end of the stick, clinics for the addicted, facilities for the mentally unstable with counselors and psychiatrist interwoven into all steps, with agents who do welfare checks on patient,staff and the facilities with a wellness director to check behind them to insure the best results for success

    1. Sadly, nowadays street homeless are drugs addicts, and they are addicted to cocktail of nasty chemicals such as fentanyl, horse tranquilizer, elephant tranquilizer, sedative benzo, rat poison, nitazenes chemicals, P2P based meth, wasp dope, and other nasty stuff. That is in the pills they smoke all the time. They are quickly damaged mentally and physically beyond the point of repair. Street addicts gradually destroy everything around themselves. The only thing they really wanna is to be as close as possible to their fentanyl dealers. If they are functional, they work as fentanyl dealers till they get zombified. We will never reduce street homelessness without reducing the amount of fentanyl and other nasty drugs available everywhere.

    1. Sadly, nowadays street homeless are drugs addicts, and they are addicted to cocktail of nasty chemicals such as fentanyl, horse tranquilizer, elephant tranquilizer, sedative benzo, rat poison, nitazenes chemicals, P2P based meth, wasp dope, and other nasty stuff. That is in the pills they smoke all the time. They are quickly damaged mentally and physically beyond the point of repair. Street addicts gradually destroy everything around themselves. The only thing they really wanna is to be as close as possible to their fentanyl dealers. If they are functional, they work as fentanyl dealers till they get zombified. We will never reduce street homelessness without reducing the amount of fentanyl and other nasty drugs available everywhere.

  8. Ok they get hospitalized then what?? They still need a roof over their head and money to survive! And where is that going to come from he didn’t address that problem !

    1. Sadly, nowadays street homeless are drugs addicts, and they are addicted to cocktail of nasty chemicals such as fentanyl, horse tranquilizer, elephant tranquilizer, sedative benzo, rat poison, nitazenes chemicals, P2P based meth, wasp dope, and other nasty stuff. That is in the pills they smoke all the time. They are quickly damaged mentally and physically beyond the point of repair. Street addicts gradually destroy everything around themselves. The only thing they really wanna is to be as close as possible to their fentanyl dealers. If they are functional, they work as fentanyl dealers till they get zombified. We will never reduce street homelessness without reducing the amount of fentanyl and other nasty drugs available everywhere.

  9. I agree help needs to come for the homeless but something is really weird about this. And with the cost of hospitalizations it is not cheap so my question is what will they do next once the money runs out. 🤔 that money used for hospitalizations could very much be used to create homes for them all the abandoned buildings could be turned into studios. Just a thought and that would also create jobs for those that want to help run it.

    1. Sadly, nowadays street homeless are drugs addicts, and they are addicted to cocktail of nasty chemicals such as fentanyl, horse tranquilizer, elephant tranquilizer, sedative benzo, rat poison, nitazenes chemicals, P2P based meth, wasp dope, and other nasty stuff. That is in the pills they smoke all the time. They are quickly damaged mentally and physically beyond the point of repair. Street addicts gradually destroy everything around themselves. The only thing they really wanna is to be as close as possible to their fentanyl dealers. If they are functional, they work as fentanyl dealers till they get zombified. We will never reduce street homelessness without reducing the amount of fentanyl and other nasty drugs available everywhere.

    2. @Kno I understand your thoughts on this I also know there is truth in your statement because I have lost a loved one to this. The dealer is also a very big part of this. So we lock away the addict under the guise of helping them and the dealer goes free. The dealer is very much a addict to . Addicted to selling the drug And committing murder at the same time and getting away with it It’s a vicious cycle Only to lock away the homeless that are addicted And the dealer left to go free to create more addicts. What it really comes down to is lack of love and compassion for our Brothers and Sisters. It’s easier to look down our nose and to lock someone away waste thousands of dollars in doing so than it is to really love a human being having compassion for them and fixing the issue. Patience and long-suffering with one another. It’s a Beautiful thing to see a person break free from Bondage and in almost every situation that I have came across it was when they turned to Jesus and cried out that they broke free and are living a fruitful life free of addiction and giving back to others that are still in Bondage. And the dealer is no where in sight because they are busy selling drugs to a new addict or lurking in the shadows trying to Lure The one that broke free back into bondage all for their own selfish Desires And habits.

    3. @Virginia Wrightyou know i strongly believe, drugs are now so strong and evil that an addict needs some strong spiritually to get out of it. He needs to find some deeper happiness to give him.goal and peace of mind. Otherwise, they will always rain fragile even if they get sober. So, first they need to get sober, and then find new purpose and meaning of life where spiritually can help. They need ro have calm mind.

    4. I think long run it might be more cost effective to hope for eventual self sufficiency. Maybe a means to an end.

    5. I think nyc probably takes a hit in tourism investment and exodus of high earners due to this and this could be an effort to improve on that too

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    1. Lol law biding citizens have rights too, I was this close 🤏 to buying a taser so it’s either they go to the hospital or they deal with a self defense weapon

  11. God bless mayor Adams. Help those who cannot help themselves. It is not a kindness to let these people die slow deaths on the street.

  12. This is to show the world that there are no homeless in USA but i do agree to a certain limit that there could be some with mental problems or might develop symptoms of it since they are going though very harsh situations. some need treatments however most might have been developing symptoms. for a common cold symptom one does not need any kind of treatments if they have time for rest similarly i believe if their problems addressed properly then it will go away without any counseling or treatments but if not then only there is chance of more mental illness.if you cannot help them then why label them as mental patients.

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