After Soho Stabbing, Lander Presses for Housing Seriously Mentally Ill People With Wraparound Services, Strengthening Involuntary Commitment Laws
Watch the recorded press conference here
NEW YORK, NY — After a 25-year-old woman was stabbed in broad daylight in Soho yesterday, Brad Lander today stood at the scene of the incident on Wooster and Broome Streets and pressed his urgent call to provide seriously mentally ill people with housing and wraparound services, as well as strengthen the state’s laws for involuntary commitment, which is being negotiated now in the state budget. Lander’s number one campaign commitment is to end street homelessness for people like the offender, Muslim Brunson, who has a history of arrests for assault and two felony convictions.
“Yesterday’s preventable tragedy in Soho is only one in a string of violent events that make us all feel less safe walking on our streets or riding our subways — and once again lays bare our City and State’s broken mental health and criminal justice systems, which time and again let people like Muslim Brunson fall through the cracks,” said Brad Lander. “To help prevent future incidents like this and make a safer City, New York must prioritize housing individuals with serious mental illness and providing them with wraparound mental health services, as my plan outlines, and strengthen involuntary commitment laws in the State budget.”
Lander’s plan to end street homelessness for people with serious mental illness centers on a “Housing First” approach, which provides the roughly 2,000 people currently cycling between the city’s streets, subways, hospitals, and jails with supportive housing. Housing First combines existing supportive housing, SRO units, vouchers, and service dollars to get people off the street and directly into stable housing with wraparound services.
Lander’s end street homelessness also includes the creation of a dedicated team at City Hall that would meet weekly with the Mayor, agency commissioners, and key service providers to review the status of individuals like Muslim, and people on the City’s Top 50 list of the most acutely at-risk individuals with serious mental illness and a record of violence – with which the city has done nothing.
Lander’s larger public safety plan, of which ending street homelessness is part, includes working to retain Jessica Tisch as NYPD Commissioner, who he says has done a fantastic job of pushing for reform, accountability, and outcomes-driven decision making; increase the number of NYPD officers by at least 1,500, so the City can reach the authorized headcount of 35,000; and appoint a Deputy Mayor for Public Safety who oversees not only public safety, but efforts across agencies like the NYPD, Correction, Probation, FDNY, the Offices of Criminal Justice and Neighborhood Safety, Emergency Management, AND the City’s health and social service agencies.
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