Mayor Adams is again trying to do something about the city’s out-of-control mentally ill population — but not enough will change until and unless progressives in the Legislature budge on involuntary commitment.
On Thursday, in the wake of another rash of brutal, high-profile attacks on random straphangers, Adams unveiled a $650 million, five-year plan to fight homelessness and improve the city’s mental-health system; it would include a 100-bed transitional facility for the mentally ill to continue supervised treatment after leaving a psychiatric facility.
It’s a decent plan with a major gap: You have to get people into psych facilities in the first place, but the seriously mentally ill rarely, if ever, independently recognize when they need help and have the wherewithal to seek it out and stick to it.
The reality is that many of these tortured souls need to be forced into treatment, at least initially.
Adams knows this, too, which is why he’s pushing, again, for the Legislature to pass the Supportive Interventions Act, which would give more clarity on when a person can be involuntarily committed.
Yet the SIA still can’t get a single sponsor in the state Senate.
And Gov. Hochul won’t fight for it, either: She’s only trying to expand and strengthen Kendra’s Law, which doesn’t go remotely far enough — but still may go too far for the progs who call the shots in the Legislature.
Indeed, she tried the same in 2022, but the lefty Assembly wouldn’t touch it.
And now both Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins emphasize that their support for Hochul’s desired changes will come down to the specifics, which is pol speak for “we’re going nitpick the bill until it dies a slow death.”
Heastie, as a top city pol, should know better: Just this month, a madman with 54 prior arrest and a history of mental-health issues slashed two people in the subway.
Rather than walking loose, he should have been sent to jail or a psychiatric facility long ago. Period.
And Stewart-Cousins made it clear how much she cares about protecting New Yorkers in her list (for Empire Report) of near-future priorities — which made no mention crime, mental illness or the recent horrific subway attacks.
The Legislature, led by progressives who insist “compassion” means letting mentally ill people rot in the street until they assault and kill innocents, has shot down every attempt to allow significant involuntary commitment.
Indeed, it’s usually a struggle just to get Kendra’s Law renewed; the progs won’t even let it be made permanent.
The Legislature isn’t going to bend until someone — Adams, Hochul, their successors — makes enough lawmakers worry about keeping their jobs if the stall continues.
Naming and shaming the worst offenders, like Queens Sen. Mike Gianaris, every time one of these troubled souls maims or kills another innocent would be a good start.