New York City Mayor Eric Adams, NYPD Interim Commissioner Thomas G. Donlon, and DSS Commissioner Molly Wasow Park announced a new initiative for subway safety and health.
The initiative — known as Partnership Assistance for Transit Homelessness (PATH) — brings together members of the NYPD Transit Bureau, New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS), and NYC Health + Hospitals to connect New Yorkers living unsheltered in the subway system with shelter and care. Launched in August, 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 M. 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. The program will be expanded in the months to come.
PATH is a major advancement in the city’s embrace of “co-response” — a crisis response model gaining traction nationally, in which police are paired with clinical professionals 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. 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 self or others.
“Since the beginning of our administration, we have been laser focused on creating outreach opportunities and supportive connections with people living in unsheltered environments whether in our streets or on our subways,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom. “These efforts include a focus on those with severe mental illness and helping folks get the care they need, even if they may not recognize their needs at a given moment. Our PATH teams are another tool to do this work with response teams including NYPD, social service professionals, and nurses from our public hospital system. We look forward to building on these efforts and reaching every New Yorker in need.”
“… strengthening more relationships with all the people we serve.”
“The men and women of the NYPD are proud to be part of the significant advances we are making to ensure that all New Yorkers — especially those within our most vulnerable populations — can readily access the city services they require and deserve,” stated NYPD Interim Commissioner Donlon. “As we continue to drive down crime on our streets and in the nation’s largest subway system, we are committed to building more trust and strengthening more relationships with all the people we serve.”
“Our around-the-clock outreach efforts and robust expansion of Safe Havens and stabilization beds have helped more than 2,000 New Yorkers who were experiencing unsheltered homelessness move into permanent homes,” said DSS Commissioner Wasow Park. “As we build on this important progress, this new interagency initiative will further enhance the presence of outreach staff and trained clinicians in the subway system to ensure that we are not missing any opportunity to meaningfully engage some of our harder to reach New Yorkers who are in critical need of quality care in safe and stable settings.”
“We are proud of our tremendous frontline staffers — from outreach workers to case managers — who each played a critical role in helping thousands of New Yorkers experiencing unsheltered homelessness stabilize their lives last year,” said DHS Administrator Joslyn Carter. “But we absolutely cannot do this important work alone, and this new initiative will help strengthen and expand the scope of our interagency outreach efforts in the subway system. We are grateful for our ongoing partnership with NYC Health + Hospitals, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the New York City Police Department as we work collaboratively to serve and support some of our most vulnerable New Yorkers.”
“… efforts to connect people to our care.”
“NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest provider of behavioral health in New York City, and all of our hospitals offer emergency psychiatric care 24/7,” said NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Mitchell Katz, MD. “Our doors are open any time you need support. We are grateful to our colleagues at the Department of Homeless Services and at the NYPD for their efforts to connect people to our care.”
Since its launch, members of the co-response PATH team have engaged with over 1,550 unhoused New Yorkers, with over 500 New Yorkers directly connected to services, ranging from shelter, meals, and medical help. Additionally, continuing to address the quality-of-life concerns of New Yorkers, members of the NYPD issued 18 summonses and removed 190 people from the transit system for various violations or state law.
The PATH program supplements Subway Co-Response Outreach Teams (SCOUT), an initiative the city operates in collaboration with the MTA’s internal police department. In March 2024, Mayor Adams and MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber announced plans to expand SCOUT to 10 teams operating in daytime hours throughout the subway system by the end of 2025. That expansion is underway and on schedule. While there is a difference in the focus of the two programs, the combination and coordination of PATH and SCOUT will allow for the implementation of co-response at more hours and with greater coverage of the extensive subway system.
“… address public safety concerns and support people experiencing homelessness …”
Additionally, 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 7,800 New Yorkers have been connected to shelter, with over 640 now in permanent, affordable housing.
PATH builds on the Adams administration’s numerous investments in evidence-based solutions to reduce the population of New Yorkers experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Efforts are focused on engaging and building trust with unsheltered individuals in all corners of the city — whether in parks, subways, or on street corners — while ensuring the safety of all neighborhoods. Since the start of the Adams administration, DSS has doubled the number of outreach staff and aggressively expanded its inventory of low-barrier safe haven and stabilization beds. Thanks to these important investments, the Adams administration has connected more than 2,000 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness to permanent housing citywide.
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.
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 addition to launching the Subway Safety Plan, in the fall of 2022, Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul deployed an additional 1,200 police officers to subway platforms and trains each day. Following the end of that deployment in 2023, earlier this year, 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. And earlier this year, when announcing an expansion of the SCOUT program, Mayor Adams additionally announced a pilot program to utilize new technologies designed to detect weapons carried by travelers into the transit system.
These safety efforts are paying off, with overall crime in the subway system down 5.1 percent year to date, with a 8.7 percent drop in September and double-digit decreases in six months of this year. And last year, overall crime in the transit system fell by nearly 3 percent compared to 2022, as the number of riders increased by 14 percent.
Additionally, in March, the NYPD announced “Operation Fare Play,” an initiative to ensure riders pay their fare when entering the subway system by deploying 800 more police officers into the subway system to crack down on those evading paying their fare as they commit other crimes. The successful operation has helped correct behavior and keep the subway system safe.
“I am pleased that Mayor Adams has announced the new ‘co-response’ operation aimed at addressing the needs of New Yorkers experiencing homelessness in the subway system,” said New York State Senator Roxanne J. Persaud, chair, committee on social services. “The PATH initiative is a crucial step forward in the commitment to ensuring the safety and well-being of all residents. I commend the Adams administration for prioritizing both public safety and the urgent needs of our unsheltered population, and I look forward to seeing the positive impact of PATH as it expands.”
“… will bring hope to hundreds of unsheltered New Yorkers …”
“Our new PATH initiative will bring hope to hundreds of unsheltered New Yorkers in the subway system, many with untreated mental illness,” said New York State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar. Teams of DHS staff and NYPD transit officers will provide compassionate social services outreach to unsheltered New Yorkers, bringing dignity and safety to the subway system. We will provide people with the help they need to stabilize their lives, so that the subways are always a means to a destination and never a final stop. This builds upon our successful Subway Safety Plan, which has already resulted in seven consecutive months of lower transit crime and outreach to over 7,800 unsheltered New Yorkers. Together, we will make the world’s largest subway system the safest it has ever been.”
“Helping homeless individuals is more complex than just calling 911,” said New York City Councilmember Lynn Schulman, chair, health committee. “It requires a comprehensive response that includes mental health and social service professionals, who are best able to help New Yorkers in need. That is why today’s newly-announced initiative to assist unsheltered individuals in the city’s subway system is such an important step. Similar to the city-state program, called SCOUT, which has been a great success, I look forward to seeing comparable results for the PATH program.”
Photo credit: NYC.gov
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