NYC subway homeless encampments being removed

NEW YORK - Mayor Eric Adams is continuing his campaign to keep people from sleeping in the New York City subway system.

Adams said the city is dismantling every homeless encampment it finds because they are not acceptable.

This comes after the MTA's new trespass task force found 350 people living in 29 different encampments in subway stations and tunnels.

They have since been removed by the police.

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A component of the mayor's overall subway safety plan is enforcement, the other is a pathway to care for homeless and mentally ill people. The NYPD is involved with both.

Deputy Inspector Kenneth Gorman explained what the team members do.

"They'll scan those cars for any kinds of issues that we need to address, whether they be law enforcement issues or people in need of services," Gorman told Fox 5 News. "They'll also try to make contact with as many members of the public and commuters as possible, and if they have any concerns they can bring those into the attention of the officers." 

"The subway plan is a comprehensive civic strategy that will do more than a temporary fix," Adams said when the safety plan was unveiled.

It includes the following steps:

• Deploying up to 30 Joint Response Teams that bring together DHS, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, NYPD, and community-based providers in high-need locations across our city.
• Training NYPD officers in the subway system to enforce the MTA and New York City Transit Authority’s rules of conduct in a fair and transparent way.
• Expanding Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division "B-HEARD" teams to six new precincts, more than doubling the precincts covered to 11. These teams will expand on the pilot of answering non-violent 911 mental health calls with mental health professionals.
• Incorporating medical services into DHS sites serving individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Expanded DHS Safe Havens and stabilization bed programs will offer on-site physical and behavioral health care to immediately address clients’ needs.
• Immediately improving coordination across government with weekly "Enhanced Outreach Taskforce" meetings that bring together senior leaders from 13 city and state agencies to address issues quickly.
• Creating new Drop-in-Centers to provide an immediate pathway for individuals to come indoors, and exploring opportunities to site Drop-in-Centers close to key subway stations to directly transition individuals from trains and platforms to safe spaces.
• Streamlining the placement process into supportive housing and reducing the amount of paperwork it takes to prove eligibility.
• Calling on state government to expand psychiatric bed resources and amending Kendra’s Law to improve mental health care delivery for New Yorkers on Assisted Outpatient Treatment.
• Requiring — instead of requesting — everyone to leave the train and the station at the end of the line.