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Addressing homelessness and mental health issues in New York City
1:39:13
ยท
103 sec
Council Member Restler and Dr. Katz discuss the broader challenges of addressing homelessness and mental health issues in New York City. They exchange ideas on the scale of the problem and potential solutions.
- Dr. Katz estimates there are about 1,000 unhoused people with serious mental illness in New York City
- Restler points out that 84,000 people slept in shelters the previous night
- They discuss the heterogeneous nature of the homeless population, including economic factors and domestic violence
- Restler emphasizes the need for better discharge planning and warm handoffs to homeless outreach organizations
- Both agree on the importance of preventing hospital discharges from leading directly to street homelessness
Dr. Mitch Katz
1:39:13
I know
Lincoln Restler
1:39:13
Could you give me a ballpark?
Dr. Mitch Katz
1:39:14
Well, the the ballpark that I that I always go on is that there are a thousand people unhoused with serious mental illness in New York City.
1:39:23
And part of what I think is interesting is that's not an impossible number, a thousand.
1:39:30
Right?
1:39:30
I mean the number of homeless people as we've talked about 55,000 much larger and very heterogenous.
Lincoln Restler
1:39:36
84,000 people slept in a shelter last night just to put a finer point on it.
Dr. Mitch Katz
1:39:40
But it's heterogeneous, right?
1:39:42
It's economic %.
Lincoln Restler
1:39:44
Domestic violence.
Dr. Mitch Katz
1:39:46
Who are, in my view, really not getting what they need and meanwhile costing the city huge amounts of money while they're not getting what they
Lincoln Restler
1:39:54
need.
Dr. Mitch Katz
1:39:55
I seriously mentally ill living on the street.
1:39:59
I can't imagine how much each one cost the city if you added up all of the visits and the police and the Rikers.
Lincoln Restler
1:40:08
And I think that the bridge to home and the respite care models are good and worthy things to help those people stabilize, and it is great that we're investing in them.
1:40:17
But we also need to do a much better job of ensuring that every single day as people are being discharged from health and hospitals and other hospitals, but especially health and hospitals because you serve the most vulnerable, that we actually provide warm handoffs to our homeless outreach organizations to get those people directly into safe havens, to get them into care so they're not just being sent back out on the street.
1:40:36
And if we can do a better job of actually not allowing the front door of our hospital to be the place where we're just sending people out to back to go right back out on the street or trains, we will be addressing this this much more effectively.
1:40:51
So I know chair Narcisse is gonna kick me if I keep talking.
Dr. Mitch Katz
1:40:53
I agree.
Lincoln Restler
1:40:53
Doctor Katz, thank you.
1:40:54
Doctor Yang, good to see
Dr. Mitch Katz
1:40:55
you both.