NYAPRS Note: Innovative programs and funding methods are needed to tackle the current mental health crisis in New York. Redirecting seized funds from criminal investigations is a promising method Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is utilizing to deploy more peers on the streets of New York City, through the Neighborhood Navigators program. This program puts peers on the streets with the goal of connecting more people who are dealing with mental health challenges and housing insecurity to appropriate services. Utilizing the principles of trust and person-centered care at the core of peer support, Neighborhood Navigators use their knowledge of the system and lived experience to help those on the street engage in voluntary mental health and substance use services. While not only for those who may be unhoused, this program’s focus on people who are often on the street comes in contrast with the recent involuntary removal directives from city hall. The Neighborhood Navigators program can serve as a compassionate, effective alternative to coercive policies which often just push people further from the system. Read below for more information on the investment and the Neighborhood Navigators program.
Manhattan D.A. Redistributes $6 Million in Seized Financial Crime Money to Harlem-based Mental Health Investment
By Tandy Lau | New York Amsterdam News | July 6, 2023
Mental health is wealth, so $6 million will go toward Harlem-based nonprofit The Bridge from the Manhattan D.A.’s Office to provide peer services to key areas in the borough, as announced last Thursday, June 27.
Central/East Harlem is one of the four focus neighborhoods for the program, along with Washington Heights/Inwood, Lower East Side/Chinatown, and Chelsea/Hell’s Kitchen/Midtown West, the locations of the major transit hubs Port Authority Bus Terminal and Penn Station.
The cash comes from a $250 million pot of asset forfeiture money seized from major banks during white collar, financial crime prosecutions and redirected by the D.A.’s Criminal Justice Investment Initiative (CJII) to community-based social services.
“By [addressing] fundamental needs like access to a safe home and mental health care, we can improve public safety in our communities,” said Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg. “While New York has an extensive array of governmental and community-based service providers, individuals with the most deeply entrenched mental health issues often lack the trust in these systems to even try and access them.
“Meeting people where they are and building trust is the best way toward long-term solutions for these individuals and the communities in which they reside.”
The game plan is to deploy these “Neighborhood Navigators”—peers whom the program is assisting—to find out who needs mental health services, how to reach them, and what’s preventing them from already seeking help.
Through shared experiences and common ground, relationships and trust are developed. The service workers, equipped with a strong understanding of local resources, can then connect the people they’re working with to the proper organizations.
“There’s no requirement for someone to come to any place that we are at. The idea is we are going to where they are,” said the Bridge Senior Vice President Sheryl Silver. “That’s where the relationship begins…it’s just trying to figure out what it is that has kept somebody from accessing the services and that’s not necessarily the same thing for everybody.”
Residents of a psychiatric hospital founded the Bridge back in 1954. These days, the organization serves more than 4,000 New Yorkers, mainly in Manhattan “above 96th Street and below 14th Street,” although it also provides services in outer boroughs like the Bronx and Brooklyn.
According to Patrick Hart, program director at the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance (ISLG), the Neighborhood Navigators program unofficially focuses on Manhattan’s unhoused New Yorkers, but keeps the parameters of served populations vague rather than shut anyone out.
“We’ve defined it as individuals either living and/or spending significant time on the street who may have a mental illness and/or a significant substance abuse behavioral health disorder,” said Hart. “There’s all these different definitions of homelessness in different federal standards. Some of these individuals might meet this definition—I think many of them would, some might not.”
ISLG partners with the Manhattan D.A. on CJII and administers the awarded funds. Open for applications last December, the specific Neighborhood Navigators grant coincided with Mayor Eric Adams’s policy decisions about involuntarily hospitalizing unhoused New Yorkers with mental illness. Hart said the initiative was set into motion long before then, but the investment certainly provides a direct alternative to committing someone, instead offering voluntary pathways to seek mental health services.
Such a program would help displaced New Yorkers experiencing serious mental illness, such as Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old unhoused Black man who was killed during an episode while on an MTA subway earlier this year. His family said he always had a place to stay although city agencies reportedly listed him as a “top 50” homeless New Yorker at risk. For one reason or another, Neely never got the help he needed.
“The flexibility of this model will allow us to have someone just spend as much time [as possible] with someone like Jordan,” said Silver. “These are the folks who, if we don’t connect with them in a meaningful way, then we’re not sure who else will.”
D.A. Bragg reinvests seized crime money to mental health services (amsterdamnews.com)