The de Blasio administration announced an action plan to end long-term street homelessness in New York City within the next five years.
The plan, which is the first of its kind in the nation, includes an increase in housing, medical services and mental health services for unsheltered individuals. It will also help enhance outreach resources in the city to deliver urgent and more rapid responses to those in need.
“Homeless New Yorkers are just like us—they deserve our love and compassion and a commitment to go as far as we can to help,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio in a press release.
He added, “So here’s our promise: we will help every last person experiencing long-term homelessness off our streets, and we will do more than we ever thought possible to bring them home.”
The six-point action plan will include:
1. Increase Safe Haven capacity by opening 1,000 new Safe Haven beds
2. Create 1,000 new low-barrier permanent apartments by working with partners across the housing and social services sectors
3. Deliver new health resources to people where they are, providing treatment through street medical care and behavioral health care, and build the trust needed for clients to come inside
4. Provide coordinated rapid outreach response through the Street Homelessness Joint Command Center
5. Leverage state-of-the-art outreach technology to better connect clients to the services they need to transition into housing
6. Expand Diversion and Outreach in our subway system
To break it down further, the first point will increase the number of beds for New Yorkers who lived on the streets with specialized needs. There will be 1,000 of these new “safe havens.”
NYC will also create 1,000 permanent housing units for New Yorkers.
The city will expand the street medicine approach, which was created by HOME-STAT outreach. This program offers rapid responses for care on the streets and within the subway. The services include: risk assessments, wound care, referrals to medical and mental health providers, medication assistance, administration of antibiotics and blood pressure, and diabetes screening.
They will also be working across agencies to fuse approaches and help those in need in the best ways possible.
