NYC has a plan to stop homeless people from cycling between hospitals and the streets

Homeless New Yorkers with severe mental illness often cycle between the street, the hospital and the shelter system. It’s a revolving door that’s long frustrated homeless advocates, clinical workers and city leaders.

But a new program started by the city’s municipal hospital system is successfully interrupting that cycle: it offers homeless New Yorkers with severe mental illness a home-like environment where they can live with support following a hospital stay.

“ We're that intervening layer that didn't exist before,” said Dr. Ted Long, chief medical officer for clinical services and population health at NYC Health and Hospitals.

Rather than discharging homeless patients back to the street or shelter, they’re referred to a repurposed hotel in Midtown where they get 24-hour clinical care, their own room with a TV, access to food, clothing, housing assistance — and their psychiatrist just downstairs. The goal is to get them ready to move into an apartment within a year.

The Bridge to Home program began last year and already moved 18 people into permanent housing. On Tuesday, the Mamdani administration will open a new location for 46 residents in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and announce an expansion to two other sites. The program’s expansion comes as the city’s street homeless numbers reached record highs last year and amid calls from state and local lawmakers to better help homeless people in crisis.