NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) – New York City’s youth should be stepping up to support the city’s efforts addressing mental health and homelessness in the subway system, Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday.
In recent months, Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul have identified mental health services as a key mitigation tool after a slew of high-profile crimes on New York City subways.
And on Tuesday, the mayor recounted an interaction he had with a young woman who asked him what he was doing to improve the mental health crisis in New York City’s subways.
“I said, ma’am, let me ask the question differently. What are we going to do,” Adams recalled telling the young woman. “How about you get in a group of your friends… how about coming out one day and walking with us and interacting with these people who live on the subway system?”
“Young people need to be leading this battle of some of the crises that we are facing in our city.”
Adams later added the NYPD needs to improve how it handles people in distress in transit. Adams said he’s seen officers refuse to engage with unhoused people who clearly need help in the subway system – something he partially attributed to criticism of the police’s conduct.
“Many of our officers are reluctant to do that engagement for many reasons, and we have to give the level of comfortability to go and do that engagement – to find out are you alright, do you need something,” Adams said. “We need to figure out, how do we tweak that more.”
It’s a point advocates made in response to Hochul’s subway safety plan released in March, which included expanded mental health outreach teams that include police and can hospitalize someone in crisis against their will.
“The NYPD is neither well-equipped nor well-positioned to conduct mental health outreach services,” said advocates and electeds in a letter to Hochul. “Investing in strategies that deploy armed law enforcement to respond to behavioral health crises presents significant dangers to those they encounter.”
On average, only six felonies are committed with around 4 million subway riders each day, according to Adams. Even still, crimes like a straphanger being pushed in front of a train have caught New Yorkers’ attention and put major focus on subway safety.
Advocates say the real solution is improved mental health services.
“To achieve real safety, we need proven methods like community investments that will promote the health and economic well-being of residents,” said Jin Hee Lee of the Legal Defense Fund.
Emily Rahhal is a digital reporter from Los Angeles who has covered local news for years. She has been with PIX11 since 2024. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter.