Video, Audio, Photos, & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Advances New Statewide Initiative to Combat Homelessness at Event With Mayor Adams

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul joined New York City Mayor Eric Adams to highlight a new statewide effort to fight homelessness and announced that the State Office of Mental Health will soon issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) to staff Safe Options Support (SOS) Teams to deploy in New York City and in targeted regions throughout the state where homelessness is most widespread. State-funded SOS teams will be comprised of trained mental health professionals who will coordinate with New York City-run outreach teams to engage with and assist individuals suffering from chronic street homelessness. The teams will connect individuals to critical supportive services and help secure placement in emergency or supportive housing programs.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Governor Hochul: Good afternoon. It is so wonderful to be here as we -- thank you, thank you -- as we herald what I call a new era for New York. I'm delighted to be here with my partner, as we are sure in this new era for New York, and that is our new, incredible, energetic, and many times fun, Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams. I want to give him a round of applause.

I also want to acknowledge some other individuals who are joining us to make some very significant announcements here today. We have a brand new Commissioner for the New York City Police Department, Commissioner Sewell, who comes with an incredible amount of experience. And as I mentioned, a new era, I'm so excited about partnering the state and the city, when it comes to deploying all the resources to make New Yorkers feel safe again. So, thank you Commissioner for being here as well. Someone who I've come to rely on incredibly since our first hours of off in office battling the rages of a hurricane, this is the person you want in trenches with you and that is our state operations director, Kathryn Garcia.

Also, we have representatives from the New York City Transit, that is Craig Sipriano, also Sarah Meyer, our customer service officer at MTA. Sarah's there a lot on her hands. Thank you, Sarah and Pat Warren and the Chief of Safety and security right now at MTA. And of course we know Janno Lieber is our leader.

We're here today at to address an issue that it's on the minds of so many New York residents, and that is the issue of homelessness. So, we're going to talk about homelessness -- homelessness, and public safety -- and I want to talk about the fact that, as I mentioned in my state of the state yesterday, this truly is a humanitarian crisis. It's hard for people to walk past someone in need of help on our city sidewalks, whether they're coming to a subway station, a train station, or just walking to work and roughly three to four thousand people -- our fellow citizens -- are homeless on the streets. These are the new Yorkers for whom the system has failed, and failure is not an option for us in government.

So we're going to go back. We're going to assess the problem and know that no New Yorker should ever have to experience life on the streets. And in our state, we're going to deploy the tools that we have available to team up with the Mayor And tackle this issue head-on because our ultimate goal is to make sure that every new Yorker has a roof over their head and that they are safe.

And again, New York City, new era, new opportunity, and New York City is one of three cities where there actually is a guaranteed right to shelter. What does that mean if there's not a safe shelter to go to? So, yesterday I announced a major initiative – for the first time we're going to create teams of trained professionals who will be embedded here, who develop relationships, develop trust, and allow us to face the issue of chronic street homelessness with a plan. We're going to get them the support they need, get them into shelter and ultimately into housing.

So we're going to have what we call our state funded, S.O.S teams - Safe Options Support. What does that mean? These are individuals who work hand in hand with New York City outreach teams. This is what has to happen. This is where you don't need to be siloed or have turf battles -- your team together, that's how it works.

That's what's been missing. And today to address this, I'm announcing that I'm signing an RFP to go out immediately to develop these teams, to staff up initial five batch of teams right now. Each team, what is this? Eight to 10 people are part of a team. These are medical professionals, they're social workers, outreach people, socialists, who understand the very deep human needs that lead people to need more help than they're getting.

Because as I said yesterday, I believe we can and will do better. It's that simple. We have no choice, but to act. At the same time I also mentioned that street homelessness only accounts for a fraction of people who are housing insecure. Many of the people do live in shelters. Shelters can be a scary place for someone, especially during COVID when we tell people not to be in congregate settings, we're worried about that as they are as well. So we also need to talk about another issue, and how to make sure that our streets and subways are safer. And I'm so glad that we're going to talk about a plan to do just that. But I mentioned, we're just talking about the tip of the iceberg here, and that's why in conjunction with launching a very hands-on strategic approach to dealing with the people on the streets, I want them to have an option to go somewhere else that is safe and worthy of them. And that means we're going to continue focusing on, but I announced yesterday, 100,000 new affordable housing units, but not just affordable housing this recognizes that people are homeless because they have unmet needs, unmet mental health needs, substance abuse issues, PTSD if these are our veterans, they need our help.

So we'll also add 10,000 supportive housing units. And I have been to so many ribbon cuttings at these types of facilities at other times, and it's like welcoming people home again and saying, this is your new life. It's beautiful how government can provide that to a human being it's powerful. And it's what we must continue to do. We're going to focus on also the most vulnerable populations, whether it's our runaway young people, LGBTQ youth who have nowhere to go, and formerly incarcerated individuals, and you heard me announced yesterday, a bold plan to welcome them back into society. And some of them may need a transition back because they've been out of their community for so long, transitional helping to help them get on the feet, their feet as well. We also announced eviction prevention, legal assistance, to help low income individuals at risk of being evicted as well. So today, we turn yesterday's rhetoric into action, and it starts here right now with an incredible partner that I am so enthusiastic and so ready to roll up our sleeves and get the job done for all New Yorkers. And with that, I'm proud to introduce the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams.

Mayor Adams: Thank you Governor. As you move through the state with your swagger, you know, and your forcefulness and thoughtfulness of how we must really have the partnership and people miss the fact that the coordination that's taking place in Albany and New York is allowing us to just get stuff done. And the communication we had, even around the school openings and how we talked about getting our children back into schools and moving supplies, you helped us get a million test kits. 2 million test kits down to the city, so that we can deploy and get them into school. And all of those things that is happening behind the scene. This is a homecoming for me. I was a transit cop in this station of almost 30 years ago. And I remember this station and I remember the challenges before they rebuilt the location. I remember riding these trains. I remember, during the high crime period or high crime time when people were afraid to utilize our system.

Graffiti was everywhere and there was just a feeling that the system was out of control. Today we are saying, we are not going back there, but not only are we not going back, but we are going to utilize our police to do public safety and our mental health professionals to give people the services that they need. And so this historical moment that many people may miss, but I acknowledge how important it is, a Safe Options Support Team plan is going to do just that.

And as I look at Dr. Ashwin who's here, how he talked about this so much during his work and the organization he was affiliated with, the group went out and dealt with street homeless all the time and he understood it. And that was one of the leading reasons we brought him on our team. The deputy Mayor and I. Our city can take two of the biggest challenges I believe, and solve them, helping in fighting homelessness that many of our brothers and sister New Yorkers are experiencing and public safety.

I said it over and over again, that public safety and justice is the prerequisite to prosperity. And I seen it from both sides, both living on the verge of homelessness as a child, and riding these subways to protect everyday New Yorkers as they went to and from their place of employment. I know what life was like in the system as a transit cop and how important it is to give the perception of safety with the actual safety.

But I also know that New Yorkers care about the people that use this system. It breaks their hearts to walk past people that are living on the train or experiencing a level of homelessness in this city. These new Safe Options Support teams would do just that. By helping our homeless New Yorkers access the services they need. Far too often, those critical periods where people have lost their jobs, lost their homes, or going through some form of healthcare crisis, if you don't reach them at that critical period, it would take a longer investment to turn their lives around and we want to do so at that critical period with proven methods and research.

That's the team we're building. They understand this line of work, they are committed to getting it right. And we're going to do that. This new plan also frees up our police officers to focus on crime and not be the street sweepers of sweeping men and women who are homeless off our system. Nowhere is that more important than the transit system.

Over the last year New Yorkers have heard this from me again and again. I talked about what the issue is in our subway system. Actual crime and the perception of crime and a perception of disorder, leads to the crisis we are facing. But also, we can do a better job by addressing the public safety aspect. And we need to be clear here. We will not allow our police officers to have unnecessary engagement with the homelessness individuals and those petty issues that will cause a negative encounter with our police officers and the riders of the public.

We want serious criminals, like the one that stabbed the individual the other day, yesterday, on the subway system. That is our focus for public safety. So we are going to sustain and ensure that we don't continue to see a decline in ridership. We want to reduce the amount of people who no longer want to take our trains or invest in our city. We want to ensure that tourists and others are safe on our subway system. And that's why this important partner of ensuring that our transit system is safe.

And so as we head into the new year with this recovery, we must restore public trust in our transportation system. And I will say it over and over again. That trust comes with public safety. We are going to add hundreds of daily visual inspections from existing police manpower. That's the goal. How do we better utilize our police force?

And those existing men and women on patrol will have an additional responsibility to go into the subway system and do visual inspections. Omnipresence brings about the level of security and safety. So those precinct level officers, they will park, they would go into the subway system and they will inspect the stations to determine if there are any law problems or any public safety problems that are existing.

And we're going to also have offices that are behind the desk. I said this on the campaign trail, too many officers who were hired for public safety are sitting behind desk. We gave them that bulletproof vest, that badge, and that firearm to go on patrol and protect the public, not to protect a computer screen. We want them on patrol where they're supposed to be.

And by getting officers from behind the desk, we're going to beef up our manpower in a real way. In addition, transit officers on patrol will now do this. They're going to ride through trains. When’s the last time you saw an officer walk through the train? To see him there and engage with passengers. How are you? How was your day? To rebuild that trust. That's the omnipresence that I knew as a rookie cop.

When you walk through that train and the public sees you, they feel that level of confidence that the system is a safe place to be. Subway riders will see our officers on that patrol and ready to respond if needed. And so, I am really pleased with this moment, governor, with your additional resources, it is going to allow us to receive the mental health professionals, to help us on the ground and be proactive.

And part of the role that our police officers will play, if they identify a homeless condition, they're going to communicate with our outreach workers so they can respond, not to have the officers engage unless there is some criminal activity taking place that needs immediate attention. This is not the partnership where officers are going to be engaging, but meant to help professionals, building trust, giving people the resources they need and giving them the dignity and respect they deserve to ensure they can have permanent housing or permanent resources.

So I'm proud of this moment. I'm proud of what the governor has done for the city of New York. Our largest transportation system. We receive hundreds of thousands of people that utilize this system every day. . And if we rebuild the trust, if we rebuild the reliability and we rebuild the belief that our system is safe, people will utilize the system again. It will become part of our overall recovery for the city. So again, governor, thank you so much.

And if I could have the opportunity to introduce my amazing police commissioner and her real vision and outlook for the city of New York, not only below ground, but above ground. And it's the coordination and partnership that we're looking forward to, police commissioner.

Commissioner Sewell: Good afternoon, everyone. It is my honor and privilege to stand here today with Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams, members of the command staff and our partners today, to speak about the important work we're doing in the nation's largest subway system. It's an exciting day.

Communities take many shapes and forms throughout New York City and not all of them are above ground. We see our subway station and lines as not just necessary rapid transit, but as neighborhoods themselves. And it's easy to understand why. And it's in each station, on each platform, in each train car, there are people, people who are going to work, to school, to their tourist destinations, and to home. These are all people who make New York City great by keeping it connected. One ride at a time.

In fact, if you want to get a quick idea of just how diverse the most diverse city in the country actually is, ride the train. If you want to travel a dozen cultures and traditions in under 20 minutes, ride the train. If you want to see how people get the work of New York City done, ride the train.

We know that these millions of riders take a deep sense of ownership in their line, in their station. Because for the length of that ride, that's their neighborhood and their fellow riders are their community. And just as they do above ground, they depend every single day on the NYP D and the MTA to keep them safe.

We take great pride in the part we do, and our public safety partners play to keep this system running. And we're always looking for ways to improve what we do. As with everything else we do across the city, when something works, we enhance it. When something needs fixing, we fix it. These new NYPD measures mean that officers will be on targeted patrol in the subway system throughout each day. To reinforce what the Mayor and the Governor have said this plan, this vision for the subway system means that additional NYPD officers from the transit bureau, from patrol services bureau, and from other special units will be reinvigorated to work in tandem for the same goal, to deter crime and getting the assistance people need to them as quickly as possible.

There will be hundreds of new visual inspections on the trains throughout each day and night. New Yorkers will witness uniformed officers’ presence in the transit system, both on platforms, in and out of trains, riding the trains to cover as much ground as possible.

So today with our Governor and our Mayor, we're introducing our plan to make this system safer for everybody, every day. We will have additional laser focused, targeted train deployments on the lines and subway stations that need them the most. With innovative transportation initiatives, they will direct patrols from above ground precincts to integrate coverage of the transit station in their sectors on each tour, every day.

This will ensure more uniformed NYPD officers in stations and platforms system-wide. We will use all of our transit bureaus available resources to deter and prevent crime before it happens and to bring swift justice to victims when, and if it does. We will accomplish this by being present, alert, in uniform, and by proactively seeing all of those we serve, as the Mayor said, we're going to talk to them, say good morning, say how are you, how is your day going and actually listening for the answer and responding. If we see passengers sleeping in transit, for example, we will engage them because we know that sleeping passengers are among the most vulnerable victims in the subways.

When we see those in need, we will make sure we make real-time referrals to get them the social services and the mental health professionals that can assist them. This subway system is for everyone. It is the lifeblood of this city. It must be, and it will be safe. That's our job and we're getting it done.

I'll turn it back over to the Governor and the Mayor.

Governor Hochul: Like I said, it's a whole new day New York. You just heard from our Commissioner who speaks with great confidence and I'm looking forward to working with her, as well as embedding her with our state forces as well. So we have a dynamic opportunity here to make a difference. And I do want to thank the Mayor for responding and delivering on something that we've talked about. I've been on the job 135 days, but early on, I also knew that we needed more of a visible presence in our subways and not up on the streets, not on the platforms, but in the subways. And I've had these conversations before. And now you've delivered on what we've been wanting to see happen, to give people that confidence, that when you get on our trains you will safely get to your destination.

And that our police will be deployed to do the rightful job that they have, which is to protect the public, but also managing a situation, again I called it a humanitarian crisis. We need to take care of the people involved. So I want to thank everyone for participating before I take question, answers, I do have to give a public service announcement about our weather situation.

To New Yorkers, I'm from Buffalo. I've got this. We will be already deploying resources up to Buffalo to upstate. I know they're getting an enormous amount of snow right now, even by Buffalo standards and the Skyway is shut down. The State, and this is what Katherine Garcia is also working on is already deploying resources where we need them. But we also anticipate a major storm here hitting New York City and Long Island. And again we're experienced, but you can never predict exactly what Mother Nature will do. So we're already getting crews out in advance. Working with utility companies, telling them that we expect any problems to be resolved very quickly. And so we'll be giving more storm updates as necessary, but, I've managed more emergency operations centers with boots on and snow over my knees than anybody else, probably in state government.