Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday the largest investment made by any city administration to combat homelessness.
Adams declared that his administration will add more than $170 million in the Fiscal Year 2023 executive budget to provide what he says will be high-quality services and resources for homeless New Yorkers.
The announcement comes as his administration works to dismantle homeless encampments throughout the city and get unhoused individuals out of the subway system. Both efforts received criticism among advocates and homeless people themselves, many of whom said they don’t want to be forced to return to city-run homeless shelters that have proven unsafe in the past.
But Adams said the funding will be used for “Safe Haven” and supportive housing beds that offer residents a peaceful and stable environment by which to rebuild their lives. It’s an effort to build confidence among homeless residents to accept the help the city’s offering them.
“This is not a one and done. This is a baseline that every year this is going to have the funding will include expanded outreach efforts to connect those in need to specialized resources,” Mayor Adams said. “This funding will help expand these efforts including safe havens, stabilization beds, and drop off centers. These are the things people have stated constantly, these are the things you need to do, so now here’s the partnership: Every elected official, every advocate, the state, we want these types of beds we’re saying to them, join us, you know, join us we’re not going to oversaturate one community with the beds that we’re looking for because we have done that historically. We’re not going to do that. This is New York City’s problem, so New York City must ensure that this is happening correctly.”
