NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a “Subway Safety Plan” Friday to improve conditions for riders and support people who are homeless or suffering from mental illness in the transit system.
The new plan, which Adams said is a longtime coming after years of neglect, includes investments in “expanded outreach teams” made up of health workers and NYPD officers, as well as additional housing and mental health resources.
“Too many passengers […] riding the train, seeing homelessness, seeing fights, just the disruption,” Adams said at a press conference with the governor. “Who wants to start their day that way? That level of despair that’s right in front of them as they enter a system just to get to their place of destination.”
The mayor called it “cruel and inhumane” to allow homeless people to live on the subway but also “unfair” to paying riders and transit workers “who deserve a clean, orderly, and safe environment.”
Adams said partnership between city and state agencies, including the state MTA and the city Department of Homeless Services will focus on three areas: people, places and policies. He said riders will begin seeing the teams “in action” starting next week.
In a jab at former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Hochul said the problem has been “simmering” because “we have not had the collaboration, the partnership, the willingness to roll up our sleeves and work together as a city and a state for far too long.”
“That era is over,” she said, promising “real results” are coming.
The plan also directs the NYPD to assist in enforcing certain subway rules, such as sleeping across multiple seats, exhibiting aggressive behavior to passengers, or creating an unsanitary environment.
“We enforce these elements in these rules,” Adams said. “No more smoking. No more doing drugs. No more sleeping. No more doing barbecues on the subway system. No more just doing whatever you want. No. Those days are over. Swipe your MetroCard, ride the system, get off at your destination.”
The mayor said the approach won’t be “heavy-handed” and that people won’t be handcuffed for minor infractions, but he said his administration is serious about improving conditions for riders in the subway while supporting the homeless and other people who need assistance.
“This is not about arresting people, this is about arresting problem,” Adams said. “We’re not saying if you break a minor infraction, we’re going to put handcuffs on you. We’re going to correct the conditions.”
“There are rules to riding this system,” Adams said. “Andy Byford, the former head of the [MTA], when he came here and did a tour, he says, ‘Y'all let people sleep on your trains? You let people live on your trains? I mean, what is that about?’ We got so used to being dysfunctional that it became the normality.”
The mayor acknowledged that riders are “deeply concerned” and frequently tell him about “their fear” of the transit system.
“We’re going to ensure that fear is not New York’s reality,” he said.
Early in January, Hochul and Adams announced “the first layer” of the effort, which included NYPD officers parking their patrol cars and going into the subway in their precincts to do inspections, Adams said. Some 115,000 inspections have been done since then, but that is only the “first wave of a complex problem,” he said.
The MTA is under pressure to improve subway safety after a series of shocking crimes, including the fatal shoving of Michelle Go last month at the Times Square subway station.
There have also been many assaults, with major crimes up 65% in the transit system so far this year.
On Thursday afternoon, a 22-year-old man breakdancing on a Brooklyn-bound L train in the East Village was stabbed multiple times in an unprovoked attack by a homeless stranger, police said. The attacker fled at the First Avenue station, and the victim was treated for stab wounds to the leg and arm.
Speaking at Friday’s press conference, MTA chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said the agency wants to “keep up the moment” of the COVID-19 recovery and that riders should have to just “deal with” poor conditions as they return.
“People who are abusive to our staff, to the heroic transit workers or to riders, who are yelling and ranting, we want them to get help. We know that they must be helped, but they can’t stay in the subway system,” Lieber said.
Here are key points of the plan, according to a press release from the mayor's office:
• Deploying up to 30 Joint Response Teams that bring together DHS, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, NYPD, and community-based providers in high-need locations across our city.
• Training NYPD officers in our subway system to enforce the MTA and New York City Transit Authority’s rules of conduct in a fair and transparent way.
• Expanding Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division “B-HEARD” teams to six new precincts, more than doubling the precincts covered to 11. These teams will expand on the already-successful pilot of answering non-violent 911 mental health calls with mental health professionals.
• Incorporating medical services into DHS sites serving individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Expanded DHS Safe Havens and stabilization bed programs will offer on-site physical and behavioral health care to immediately address clients’ needs.
• Immediately improving coordination across government with weekly “Enhanced Outreach Taskforce” meetings that bring together senior leaders from 13 city and state agencies to address issues quickly.
• Creating new Drop-in-Centers to provide an immediate pathway for individuals to come indoors, and exploring opportunities to site Drop-in-Centers close to key subway stations to directly transition individuals from trains and platforms to safe spaces.
• Streamlining the placement process into supportive housing and reducing the amount of paperwork it takes to prove eligibility.
• Calling on state government to expand psychiatric bed resources and amending Kendra’s Law to improve mental health care delivery for New Yorkers on Assisted Outpatient Treatment.
• Requiring — instead of requesting — everyone to leave the train and the station at the end of the line.
Related
Related
Related
