About 50,000 homeless people live in New York, some with mental disorders. Compulsory admissions are intended to combat crime in the metropolis. A corresponding regulation is to be discussed in the coming year, according to Mayor Adams.
The New York mayor wants to have mentally ill homeless people forcibly committed and thus continue to fight crime in the US metropolis. “When a serious mental illness leaves someone homeless and a danger to themselves, we have a moral obligation to help them,” Mayor Eric Adams said.
Police, medical professionals and social workers should therefore in future be able to admit homeless people who they suspect have mental problems against their will. According to Adams, a corresponding legal regulation is to be discussed next year.
“The common misconception that we can’t provide involuntary assistance unless the person is violent (…) persists,” Adams said. “This myth has to be dispelled.” There are an estimated 50,000 homeless people in New York City.
Adams, a former police officer and representative of US President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party, has made the fight against violent crime one of his top priorities.
