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New York City Initiative Aims to Help Mentally Ill People Who Get Violent

Advocates for homeless people praised the initiative but maintained that permanent housing should be addressed as well.Credit...Michael Appleton for The New York Times

Mental health experts will fan out to New York City’s homeless shelters, into the streets and to other places to treat mentally ill people who exhibit violent behavior, as part of an initiative announced on Thursday by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The mayor said the goal of NYC Safe, a $22 million mental health initiative, was to aggressively reach mentally ill people prone to hurting themselves or others. Various agencies, including the Department of Homeless Services and the New York Police Department, will share information with one another about those people to make sure they are being treated, city officials said. About $5 million of the funding will go toward increasing security around and inside some homeless shelters.

The initiative follows the killing of a Bronx shelter director by a former resident in April, as well as various tabloid stories about vagrants harassing or offending passers-by. The episodes, coupled with a public perception that homelessness is worsening, have been problematic for Mr. de Blasio, as he struggles to assure the public that the city remains safe while also trying to destigmatize mental illness.

Mr. de Blasio said the news media was portraying the initiative as a program for homeless people, but he said it was more about helping people with serious mental illness.

“They are a concern to all of us whether they live in an apartment building, a private home, in a shelter or on the street,” he said. “The bottom line here is that treatment saves lives. The absence of treatment puts lives in danger. Sometimes it’s the life of the individual themselves; sometimes it’s the life of others.”

The initiative involves creating teams of clinicians, police officers, peace officers and other professionals to help groups of people who have untreated mental illnesses. For example, there will be three “intensive mobile treatment teams” to reach a core of about 75 people who are in and out of jail and in danger of becoming homeless. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will have a team that monitors the treatment received.

The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice will gather information from several agencies about those who need to be assessed and helped. Susan Herman, a deputy police commissioner, said the Homeless Services Department or the health department would report someone displaying violent tendencies, such as a staff member having “observed somebody breaking furniture or assaulting other clients.”

Many of the people are already known to various agencies, city officials said. Mr. de Blasio said the number is limited to “several hundred,” though the mayor allowed that this group is having a big impact on the city.

To meet the need, the city will add about 50 employees while some services will be parceled out to independent contractors, according to the mayor’s office.

Mr. de Blasio said the initiative was part of the city’s larger plan to address mental health, led by Chirlane McCray, his wife.

Ms. McCray, who has said her parents had undiagnosed mental illnesses and whose daughter has been vocal about her own recovery, has made mental health a priority. She recently announced a $30 million plan aimed at providing mental health services to low-income residents.

Ms. McCray and Mr. de Blasio both spoke on Thursday about removing the stigma surrounding mental illness. “Most people who suffer from mental illness are not violent,” she said. “But those who are have an outsized impact on the lives of their loved ones, families and the communities where they live.”

“Violence is not acceptable, and it is not acceptable to punish people who are sick when we know their condition is treatable,” she said.

The first lady declined to give details about housing for mentally ill people, which is expected to be another piece of the city’s comprehensive plan to address mental health. Advocates for mental health and homeless people say housing is key to treating people and keeping them off the streets. Ms. McCray said she would have an announcement in the fall. “More to come,” she said.

Mary Brosnahan, president and chief executive of the Coalition for the Homeless, praised the mayor and Ms. McCray for bringing a “more informed and practical perspective” to the issues. But she was resolute on the need for permanent housing.

“The tale of whether or not these initiatives will prove successful will be told only after they commit the permanent housing resources to accompany and bolster the efficacy of these teams,” she said in a statement. “A major commitment of housing with on-site support services for New Yorkers with mental illness must come in short order, if we hope to see any lasting difference in the visible suffering we all encounter each day.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: An Initiative Aims to Help Violent Mentally Ill People. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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