NYC Council Calls for Budget Restorations and Greater Investments in Programs to Address Recidivism, Mental Health and Keep New Yorkers Safe Ahead of Public Safety Executive Budget Hearing

 

Mayor’s FY25 Executive Budget fails to restore and provide funding for safety solutions that address intersecting mental health and housing crises

Ahead of the City Council’s Executive Budget hearing with the Committee on Finance and Committee on Public Safety, the Council called for restorations and greater investments into programs that would help the City reduce recidivism, respond to mental health challenges, and provide stability to New Yorkers.

There are several programs that face cuts or inadequate funding, which the Council prioritized in its Preliminary Budget Response but were left out of the Mayor’s FY25 Executive Budget.

These include:

Mental Health Courts and Diversion Programs

Mental health courts and their associated programs help facilitate appropriate mental health responses and reduce the likelihood of rearrest by diverting people into treatment with increased coordination of care to address underlying issues. These programs have lacked the capacity to fulfill the level of need, are too often unavailable, and can have average wait times of months for appropriate placement because of insufficient investments to operate at scale. The Council called upon the Administration to provide an additional $8.9 million for baseline funding for mental health courts that connect people to appropriate interventions: $4.7 million in additional resources for the Manhattan Mental Health Court and the Judicial Diversion Court’s Mental Health Track, and $4.2 million for alternative-to-incarceration programs (ATIs) and problem-solving courts.

15/15 Supportive Housing and Justice-Involved Supportive Housing

Supportive housing remains one of the most effective methods to address issues of mental health and homelessness by providing housing stability to individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness with other challenges or involvement in the justice system. The Council called on the Administration to allocate $19.6 million to progress the 15/15 Supportive Housing program and $6.4 million for Justice Involved Supportive Housing (JISH) to ensure 500 supportive housing units are brought online for New Yorkers to successfully transition back into their communities.

Alternatives to Incarceration, Supervised Release and Re-entry Programming

For years, the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice has managed Alternatives to Incarceration, supervised release, and re-entry programming to reduce incarceration and recidivism. As part of the Mayor’s Program to Eliminate the Gap, these programs took a nearly $28 million cut and were only partially restored in the Executive Budget.

Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) teams

FACT teams are specialized units composed of experts including behavioral health specialists, clinicians, and case management experts that provide care and wraparound for individuals with serious mental illnesses (SMIs) outside of traditional clinical settings. They provide targeted support to people who have not been effectively served by traditional services and have cycled through the justice system without successful interventions to address their underlying challenges. The Council called for an additional $7 million investment to expand the City’s FACT teams.

Trauma Recovery Centers

Over the past two fiscal years, the Council has allocated nearly $5 million to establish New York State’s first trauma recovery centers (TRCs) in Brooklyn (2) and the Bronx (1). TRCs are designed to reach survivors of violent crime who lack access to traditional victim services and are less likely to engage in mainstream mental health or social services. They provide wraparound services and coordinated care, including mental health, physical health, and legal services, by utilizing multi-disciplinary staff that can include psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and outreach workers focused on providing survivor-centered healing and removing barriers to care. The Council called for $7.2 million in baselined funding to permanently sustain the existing TRCs and create one new center in both Queens and Staten Island in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget.

Community Justice Centers

Community Justice Centers have bridged the gap between the courts and communities to improve public safety and public trust in justice. By helping community members access stable housing, neighborhood safety, re-entry services, and youth programming, these Centers reduce recidivism and help prevent crime while solving neighborhood problems. The Council called on the Administration to provide the necessary capital funds to construct facilities to house Community Justice Centers in the Bronx and Staten Island, the only boroughs without centers.