Ripon Forum


Vol. 57, No. 2

View Print Edition

In this edition

With violent crime continuing to escalate and office occupancy rates not yet returning to pre-pandemic levels, the latest edition of The Ripon Forum examines the future of American cities in the wake of COVID-19.

Bringing the Dream of Homeownership Back Within Reach

To address rising prices and a record shortage of over 20 million homes, the senior Senator from Utah has put forward a novel solution – build more homes on federal land.

Standing Up to the Chinese Communist Party’s Aggressive Tactics

The CCP has a long history of aggresson towards any nation that impedes their quest for supremacy. To remain competitive, it is crucial out nation stands united and pursues practical solutions.

Rebuilding Our Supply Chain in the Wake of COVID-19

From cargo ships to planes, semi-trucks to trains, the pandemic brought the cracks in our supply chain to the surface. Congress must continue working to get things back on track.

Is the U.S. Tax System Rigged in Favor of the Rich?

The U.S. tax system is highly progressive. But if policymakers continue to double down on this progressivity while ignoring our nation’s debt, it could come at a cost to the American economy.

THINGS ARE DIFFERENT DOWNTOWN

We are entering a new urban epoch, with the potential to disrupt city life in ways not unlike that created in the shift from an industrial to what has become the “transactional city.”

An All-Hands-On-Deck Approach to End Homelessness

Congress has a decision to make. Will we change the way we distribute funds to fight homelessness, or will we continue to reward providers based on an ideological philosophy?

From Broken Windows to Jumping Turnstiles

With violent crime spiking in America’s cities, cracking down on people who evade fares is a necessary step to increasing safety on mass transit systems.

Hospitalizing the Homeless: For those with serious mental illness, it is compassionate to get them off the streets

We must safeguard our civil liberties, but we also must not forget abut the right of an ill person who relies on society’s conscience and protection to survive a treatable illness.

Hospitalizing the Homeless: Without affordable housing and services, the mentally ill will end up back on the streets

Mayor Adams should promote solutions that center on people, focus on connecting short-term interventions to long-term housing solutions, and promote pathways to economic mobility.

Ripon Profile of Nicole Malliotakis

New York City’s lone Republican U.S. House Representative discusses the biggest challenge facing the people she represents and the toughest vote she has had to cast on Capitol Hill.

Hospitalizing the Homeless: Without affordable housing and services, the mentally ill will end up back on the streets

Communities across America are struggling with how best to respond to unsheltered homelessness, especially for those who battle mental illness. Some states and cities are responding by passing bills that make sleeping on the streets or parks a criminal offense. Others are clearing encampments in the interest of public safety or are directing funding for “sanctioned encampments.” In New York City (NYC), Mayor Eric Adams and Commissioner of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, recently released the city’s action plan for mental health. The plan followed up the mayor’s announcement last fall that described how the city would take steps to involuntarily institutionalize New Yorkers experiencing homelessness and exhibiting symptoms of a mental illness even if they posed no active threat of violence or harm to themselves or others.

New York City has tried similar approaches in the past without success. Homelessness soared in the city during the 1980s, mainly due to the deinstitutionalization of severely mentally ill individuals from psychiatric hospitals. Many of these individuals ended up homeless or in jail without the city making the necessary investments in housing and behavioral health services. States and cities around the country passed similar deinstitutionalization policies. Now, 40 years later, policymakers are swinging back to the 1980s despite knowing that there are better alternatives.

People experiencing homelessness in NYC accounted for 37%, nearly 47,000, of those who cycle through the emergency mental health programs. This included emergency rooms, inpatient psychiatric stays, and mobile crisis referrals. These crisis response services are expensive and inefficient at providing the necessary support to address long-term housing and health needs. Individuals without housing who are placed into involuntary psychiatric holds or arrested are frequently discharged back into homelessness. With no connection to services or housing, these individuals will cycle through these systems repeatedly.

People experiencing homelessness in NYC accounted for 37%, nearly 47,000, of those who cycle through the emergency mental health programs.

Recent research conducted in Denver, Colorado, found that this cycle costs approximately $15,100 annually per person. If we apply this cost to the 47,000 unsheltered homeless involved in NYC’s emergency mental health program, the taxpayers will foot a $710 million bill annually. This estimate is likely conservative since NYC services costs are predictably higher.

As the decades since the 1980s have shown, investing in and scaling short-term interventions will not reduce homelessness and certainly will not help those individuals living with severe mental illness become healthier. Funding for crisis-based responses only perpetuates the cycle of homelessness and generates high public costs.

Investing in cost-effective solutions

Instead, Mayor Adams should look to examples for addressing homelessness that center on people, focus on connecting short-term interventions to long-term housing solutions, and promote pathways to economic mobility. Cities like Denver, Boston, and Dallas, amongst several others, have all been successful in reducing unsheltered homelessness by using a public health approach that brings together coordinated outreach providers, health systems, and housing partners to respond to increases in unsheltered homelessness and support those with severe mental illness.

Mayor Adams should look to examples for addressing homelessness that center on people, focus on connecting short-term interventions to long-term housing solutions, and promote pathways to economic mobility.

While the mayor’s mental health plan includes positive community mental health investments, it makes no investment in housing. The mayor’s plan acknowledges that safe, stable, and affordable housing is a critical part of supporting individuals with severe mental illness, but it stops short of providing funding for more affordable housing. The city is on track to develop 15,000 new affordable housing units with wraparound services, with 7,000 units produced to date. The mayor included this goal set by the de Blasio administration as part of transitional housing, reducing red tape to get into housing, and better integrating existing services for those experiencing severe mental illness who are already housed. These actions are a good step.  But based on the mayor’s numbers, even when the development of the 15,000 units is complete, there will still be 32,000 individuals simultaneously experiencing homelessness and a mental health crisis.

Mayor Adams must invest in better solutions that provide pathways to safe, stable, and affordable housing with services. Otherwise, taxpayers will still be on the hook for $483 million annually with no end in sight.

Deborah De Santis is President and CEO of the Corporation for Supportive Housing.