Alliance Alert: Today’s Times Union commentary by Alliance for Rights and Recovery’s CEO Harvey Rosenthal underscores what so many New Yorkers already know: we do not need to expand involuntary treatment laws—we need to strengthen access to voluntary, community-based services that help people enter and remain in recovery.
New York’s current mental hygiene laws already allow for forced hospitalization in emergency situations. Expanding these laws will only lead to more harm, trauma, and racial disparities—especially in communities of color—and will not provide people with the housing, food, or long-term support that they need to survive and recover.
At the same time, devastating federal funding cuts have begun, with hundreds of millions slashed from state health and behavioral health budgets. Programs like Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)—which support people with the most complex needs—are on the chopping block. The Trump administration is also moving to cut funding for Housing First initiatives in favor of forced treatment, a blow to efforts that keep people stably housed without requiring treatment or sobriety first.
If these cuts continue, and New York chooses to invest in more coercion rather than real support, more people will be caught in the cycle of hospitalization, homelessness, and incarceration, without ever getting the help they need.
That’s why the Alliance is calling on state leaders to hold the line and invest in voluntary services that work. As budget negotiations continue, we urge inclusion of the following:
- $22 million to phase in Daniel’s Law, plus full passage of the legislation
- $15 million for Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams
- $10 million for supportive housing
- $103 million for the Homeless Housing and Assistance Program
- $1.6 million increase for INSET teams (on top of the Executive proposal)
- An additional $900,000 for Peer Bridger programs in addition to the Governor’s original proposal
- $16.5 million for Enhanced Voluntary Service Plans – not for forced treatment
- Mandatory use of Mental Health Incident Review Panels
- Require Housing First placements for anyone involuntarily transported to a hospital
- Increased rates for Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative (ESSHI)
- A 7.8% flexible rate enhancement for all community-based agencies and their workforce
These are the kinds of investments that provide real, lasting help—not the illusion of safety through coercion.
We urge the Governor and Legislature to reject involuntary commitment expansions and instead fund the voluntary, person-centered services that keep New Yorkers safe, stable, and on the path to recovery.
Join our advocacy push as we get nearer to the final state budget by using the following action alert system to send messages and call your lawmakers today: ACT TODAY
Read Harvey Rosenthal’s full commentary below and continue to monitor this email for other ways you can join our efforts.
Commentary: We have Better Mental Health Options than Involuntary Treatment
By Harvey Rosenthal | Times Union | March 31, 2025
New York doesn’t have to choose between improving public safety or protecting the rights of people with mental illnesses. By investing in community interventions, we can do both.
New York policymakers and the public are being encouraged to believe that we have to choose between policies that either improve public safety or that protect the rights of people with mental illnesses. In fact, we can do both.
We all want to help stop the suffering of people in severe states of crisis. We all want to support them as they get off the streets and into safer homes and healthier lives. But we can do this without extending policies that deploy police to make what are termed “mental hygiene arrests” and initiate involuntary treatment.
Too often, these interventions send innocent people who lack adequate food, shelter and clothing on traumatizing trips to hospitals that don’t provide any of these, and that all too often send them out in no better shape than before. In New York City, a recent City Council report also showed they disproportionately impact communities of color.
Coercive confinements should be viewed as system failures, not as a solution, and the Legislature should reject Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal to extend their use.
Fortunately, the governor’s budget proposal contains other solutions. It seeks to make critically important investments in programs that successfully engage people who have rejected more traditional approaches by addressing their most pressing needs:
- She wants to expand the Intensive Support Engagement Team (INSET) program, in which peers keep people involved in and working on their recovery.
- She proposed a “peer bridger” program to build trusting relationships and help people transition out of hospitals and into the community.
- She wants to invest in upstate “clubhouses,” family-styled support centers that offer hope and opportunities for friendships, support and employment.
Lawmakers should also pass Daniel’s Law, which would send mental health responders, rather than police, to assist people experiencing a mental health or substance abuse crisis, diverting people from needless police contacts and incarceration.
And they should invest in low-barrier “housing first” programs that accept folks who may not be fully stable or sober.
We’ve had several terrible incidents in New York involving people with mental illnesses causing or being victims of acts of violence. But we don’t know enough about these tragedies to know what might have prevented them: Was it a lack of services, coordination, accountability or oversight? Lawmakers should establish the use of incident review panels to determine what happened and what we can all do to prevent further tragedies.
All of these approaches are strongly supported by a broad coalition of advocacy groups that champion mental health, disability rights, independent living and criminal justice reform. These solutions also align with the findings of a recent Lake Partners survey that found that 56% of respondents preferred voluntary, community-based assistance, rather than coercive, hospital-based approaches.
We know what works: Rather than putting into law policies that will take us backwards, we can offer humanizing and accountable approaches that will keep everyone safe.
Harvey Rosenthal, a person in long-term mental health recovery, has served as CEO of the Alliance for Rights and Recovery since 1994.
We have better mental health options than involuntary treatment