Mayor Eric Adams has launched a new initiative to tackle homelessness in New York City's subway system. The program involves pairing outreach workers and clinicians with transit police officers to provide shelter and services to those experiencing homelessness, Gothamist reports. The new program, called Partnership Assistance for Transit Homelessness, or PATH, joins a constellation of homeless outreach teams across the city. But city officials said it sets itself apart by embracing the so-called “co-response” model that pairs civilians and police to do outreach or crisis response. It’s a model the Adams administration is seeking to expand, according to Brian Stettin, Adams’ senior advisor on severe mental illness.
The PATH teams started operating in August and have so far made contact with more than 1,500 people and connected about 500 of them to some kind of services, such as access to temporary housing or medical care, officials said. Each team consists of four police officers, a nurse and two Department of Homeless Services service coordinators. PATH runs overnight and is focused on providing a broader range of services. Stettin added that, when necessary, PATH teams can take people to the hospital, too, though — with their consent or not. City officials also insisted that police are necessary to keep New Yorkers and outreach workers safe. The expansion of the co-response model comes as some advocates for people with mental health issues continue to push for less police involvement in crisis response. But Stettin said the discourse is “frustrating” because it presents a “false choice” between police or a mental health response. The PATH teams are currently only operating in Manhattan, but Adams said the goal is to expand them to other parts of the city.
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