New York wants to hospital against their will homeless people considered psychiatric patients

Judging that New York is in the grip of growing insecurity, its mayor Eric Adams announced on Tuesday a plan to hospitalize against their will homeless people present in the street and the subway and considered as psychiatric patients.

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« If people with serious mental illness are homeless and pose a danger to themselves, we have a moral obligation to help them get the treatment and care they need, » he said. press the democratic city councilor, a former police officer classified in the center right and who has made the fight against violence the bedrock of his municipal policy.

A bill must be presented in 2023 to the legislative and executive powers of the State of New York, providing for the intervention on public roads and in the subway of the police, security, public health and social assistance services to possibly forcibly arrest and hospitalize homeless people suspected of suffering from mental and psychiatric disorders

“There continues to be a mistaken belief that we could only help someone against their will if they are violent, suicidal or present a risk of immediate danger,” Mr. Adams argued.

« It’s a myth that needs to go. We will do everything to help those who suffer from mental illnesses that put them in danger and prevent them from providing for their basic needs,” assured the mayor.

Mr. Adams, in power since January, had immediately pledged to drive out of the gigantic metro network of his metropolis the countless homeless people who survive there. In particular after the murder in early January of an Asian American woman, pushed on a track by a man known to hospital and police services, dragging on the docks and suffering from psychiatric disorders.

There are 50,000 homeless people in New York according to estimates from associations and social services.

In a context of an increase in the number of crimes and misdemeanors observed in New York in 2021 after the pandemic, the feeling of insecurity continued to grow this year in certain districts of the city and in the subway, in particular after murders by weapon with a weapon. fire or bladed weapon.

According to weekly statistics from the New York police (NYPD), 391 people were killed in the metropolis between January 1 and November 27, compared to 440 for the same period of 2021.