New York City is tackling the issue of homelessness and untreated mental illness with a controversial strategy: remove people from the streets and hospitalize them, whether they want to go or not.
The strategy has been tried before. In the 1980s, a homeless woman named Joyce Brown, who called herself Billie Boggs, went to court to challenge her forced hospitalization. The case pitted civil liberties advocates against Mayor Ed Koch and his efforts to address homelessness, making national headlines.
When Mayor Eric Adams announced a similar plan in 2022, critics like Sam Tsemberis, the founder of the Pathways Housing First Initiative, argued that the approach missed the bigger picture.“This is just a smokescreen,” he said, emphasizing the need for systemic solutions. Tsemberis was a pioneer of the “housing first” model, which prioritizes giving people a stable home without requiring sobriety or treatment as a condition.
The mayor’s supporters point to legal precedents, like the case of Joyce Brown, to justify interventions. “We can see the trajectory,” said Brian Stettin, senior advisor for severe mental illness in the mayor’s office, “and there actually is case law that is on our side here.”
Outreach workers say trust and voluntary acceptance are essential to long-term change. As the city presses to make its expanded criteria for involuntary care official state law, the debate over care versus civil liberties continues.
View transcript here.
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