The city’s leaders are pressing Governor Kathy Hochul to bring back state‑run psychiatric hospitals that have been closed for years, insisting that the lack of long‑term beds only deepens the city’s homelessness and safety problems. A bipartisan group known as the Common Sense Caucus recently sent a letter demanding that the state reopen major facilities in the five boroughs to help relieve the strain on shelters. “Removing the mentally ill from the shelter system would .. help other unhoused New Yorkers to feel safer when entering the system, and would enhance public safety by decreasing the amount of mental health calls our police and EMTs need to respond to every day,” the letter read.
Council members argue that the current limited capacity forces vulnerable residents to wander the streets and subways at all hours. In its latest HOPE survey, the city counted 4,504 people living on the streets, in parks and on the subway on the night of Jan. 28, 2025—an increase of 9 % from last year’s 4,140. “What we’re seeing on our streets is absolutely inhumane,” said Council Minority Leader Joann Ariola. “We have facilities across the state that can be reopened to provide real, long term care to the mentally ill, but Albany is refusing to allow it. This is shameful. Instead, the governor seems content to let those buildings rot, and allow our homeless population to continue to needlessly suffer,” the Queens Republican added.
Ariola and her colleagues have named several hospitals for reopening, including Pilgrim State on Long Island, Middletown State in Orange County, Manhattan Psychiatric Center on Wards Island and Holliswood Hospital in Queens. For decades, New York has shifted away from large psychiatric institutions toward community‑based care. A Manhattan Institute report from September noted that the state now has a little over 9,200 inpatient psychiatric beds spread across public, private and general hospitals. At their peak, state psychiatric centers housed more than 90,000 beds and made up roughly a third of the state budget. Since the 1970s, successive governors have cut beds and redirected funds to local programs. Governor Cuomo’s “Transformation Plan” alone eliminated over 700 beds by 2021, channeling money into outpatient and community services.
Ariola stresses that the nation has moved beyond the 1970s model and that the previous failures should not hold back proper care today. “This isn’t 1972 any more,” she said. “We’ve come a long way when it comes to proper care for our most vulnerable, and we need to stop letting the sins of a half‑century ago prevent proper treatment for those in need today.”
Governor Hochul has begun to reverse the trend, adding 1,000 beds statewide since she assumed office, according to a spokesperson. The Office of Mental Health currently has available beds at Manhattan Psychiatric Center and Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, and plans to build 100 new inpatient units on Wards Island. However, the council insists that these measures fall short, especially for those with serious mental health conditions. “For many of those with the most severe mental health issues, supportive housing, short‑term hospital stays, and out‑patient programs do little to actually alleviate their plight,” the letter said. “These individuals require constant, intensive treatment that only a dedicated, long‑term psychiatric hospital can provide.”
The Common Sense Caucus has reiterated its call to increase intensive psychiatric care almost three years after the initial letter, noting that the situation has only worsened since then.
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