By Forum Staff
Mayor Eric Adams on Friday celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Partnership Assistance for Transit Homelessness program, a public safety and social services co-response outreach initiative.
PATH teams have made over 20,100 engagements with unhoused New Yorkers living in the subway system, delivering critical services — including shelter, meals, medical care, and mental health support — more than 6,100 times, according to the administration. Additionally, City Police Department Transit Bureau officers, working alongside PATH clinicians, have removed more than 2,100 individuals from the transit system for various violations of the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s rules of conduct or State law.
The program is part of the City’s use of “co-response” — a crisis-response model gaining traction nationally in which clinical professionals are paired with police to engage with members of the public in need of medical care and/or social services. Participating police officers receive specialized training in crisis de-escalation and allow their clinical partners to take the lead once safety is assured. While co-response is not meant to replace traditional outreach conducted without police involvement, in certain situations, the presence of police officers affords clinicians a greater sense of personal safety, enabling more meaningful engagement with those in need. According to the administration, co-response also greatly enhances the ability of a clinician to initiate transport to a hospital for evaluation in circumstances where an individual exhibits symptoms of mental illness presenting a danger to themselves or others.
Adams said co-response offers tailored support based on each person’s needs — from a hot meal and a bed for the night to medical attention or psychiatric evaluation — improving both the safety and effectiveness of outreach efforts and increasing the changes of connecting people to lasting care.
“Keeping New Yorkers safe is our number one commitment — especially on the subways, which millions of riders rely on every day,” Adams said. “Today, we are proud to celebrate the one-year anniversary of our PATH program, which has already connected thousands of New Yorkers in need on our subways to critical services. When we took office, we made it clear: the days of ignoring people in need on our streets and in our subways were over. And since then, our administration has fundamentally changed the conversation on severe mental illness and fought to end the culture of ‘anything goes.’ Our PATH program shows that compassion, public safety, and justice must all go together — and this anniversary marks an important milestone in making New York City just that: more kind, more just, and safer for everyone.”
“The PATH program is a critical initiative to address homelessness and other quality of life conditions in our subway system, and one year later, the results of this whole-government approach speak for themselves,” City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch added. “Thousands of New Yorkers are getting access to the resources they need and deserve, and transit crime is at record lows across the city. None of this is by accident — it’s because of the incredible work of the NYPD, DSS, DHS, and NYC Health + Hospitals that have all provided this important care, and Mayor Adams who has always put the safety of our city first.”
