Eric Adams Is Defying Decades of Hands-Off Homeless Policy: ‘The Pendulum Swung Too Far’

When New York City mayor Eric Adams announced in late November a new vision for addressing the growing crisis of homeless people suffering from severe mental illness in the city’s streets and subways, he said it was an effort to lead with compassion and care.

It was a myth about state law, he said, that for a person who is showing symptoms of severe mental illness to be taken in for treatment against his will, he would have to have committed an overt and dangerous act. Too many people were being allowed to languish on the streets, in danger and in need.