The city budget deal struck Wednesday includes $115 million in added spending by the new city agency that grew out of first lady Chirlane McCray’s controversial, $1.25 billion mental-health initiative.
The boost gives the Office of Community Mental Health — which Mayor Bill de Blasio created last month to make permanent and also rebrand the former ThriveNYC program — a total of nearly $320 million in taxpayer money under the spending plan for fiscal 2022.
The additional allocation of taxpayer money includes $96 million for a citywide expansion of the multi-agency Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division — known as “B-HEARD” — which dispatches teams of EMTs and social workers in response to 911 calls about non-violent, emotionally disturbed people.
The program, which was launched in parts of Harlem earlier this year, is intended to reduce the number of confrontations between cops and mentally ill people, although B-Heard teams can still summon the NYPD if situations spiral out of control.
