Under Mayor Bill de Blasio as part of the closure of the Rikers Island jail, it was announced that the empty building #2 at Jacobi Hospital would house medically complex people from the Rikers Island infirmary. First it was said the residents would have Stage-4 cancer, then it became lesser illnesses, until it finally became a bad case of diabetes. It was also said that 84% of the people held in Rikers Island are people waiting for their trials or Pre-trial detainees.
On Martin Luther King Day NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani came to Jacobi Hospital to announce that the Just Home Project has been reactivated and will go forth at Jacobi Hospital. Dr. Mitchell Katz said "we got land, and we want to house people." Public Advocate Jumanne Williams said "Restarting Just Homes is a statement that our city chooses humanity over exclusion." Stanley Richards the president of the Fortune Society said "New Yorkers returning from incarceration who are medically fragile, who have paid their debt to society will be housed at Just Home."
This reporter was able to ask that since Dr. Katz has said he does not like parking lots, and there was talk of another or two more buildings that might be built will there be one or two more buildings built? the answer from Dr. Katz was, Well, we know that at Health + Hospitals we have land, and now we have a mayor and an administration that is committed to housing. We want to use that land.I asked again if there would be more buildings built, and Dr. Katz answered, "Obviously, our mayor has made it clear." The mayor then said we're here to talk about this announcement.
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