Mayor Adams promises free healthcare for homeless people in elevated city status

New York Mayor Eric Adams has vowed to use his second year in office to provide free health care to the city’s homeless and crack down on “most wanted” criminals.

Adams made the vow Thursday during his second State of the City address at the Queens Theater in Flushing.

Although the mayor provided few details on how the plan, which could cost the city millions, would be funded in practice, he explained that providing free health care to the homeless would ease pressure on the city in the long run.

He said during the speech that his Workers’ Agenda for 2023 was built on “four pillars that are essential to build a city”: jobs, security, housing and care.

Cleaning the city’s streets was also addressed, with the mayor saying he would continue to fight ‘rats, garbage and traffic’.

During his first State of the City address in 2022, his emphasis was on public safety.

He announced during the January 26 speech that his administration would work with the federal government to allow New Yorkers who have been homeless for more than seven days access to free health care.

“Connecting homeless New Yorkers with ongoing primary care, behavioral health care and social services is more cost-effective than the cycle of hospitalizations and emergency room visits that so many experience,” he said.

Adams also took the opportunity to raise the subject of crime. Although the city’s murder and shooting rates fell in the first half of this month compared to last year, certain types of crime remain high, such as rape and robbery, as well as crime in general.

But on Thursday, the mayor pledged to make streets and neighborhoods safer by removing the most wanted criminals, who he said are responsible for much of the city’s crime.

“We’re getting New York City’s ‘most wanted’ off our streets and investing millions to make our city cleaner and greener,” he said.

“Time and time again, we see crime after crime from a core group of repeat offenders. There are approximately 1,700 known criminals who are responsible for a disproportionate amount of violent crime in our city,’ he said.

Adams was quick to congratulate Gov. Kathy Hochul, who was in the front row at the Queens Theater on Thursday.

“On so many issues, she’s been there for our city from the beginning,” Adams said. Several items on her agenda will require Albany’s support.

Adams was prepared to acknowledge that there are problems with the way criminals are handled and that there is a backlog of criminal cases to handle.

He said: ‘We look forward to working with the Governor and the legislature to make changes to the law that will ensure that defendants have a speedy trial that our Constitution guarantees and that victims and their families receive justice in a timely manner.

“That means making sure our district attorneys and public defenders have the resources they need to resolve the backlog.”

He announced that the city will also work with Albany to push through a new bill that increases penalties for aggressive and law-breaking drivers.

“We must treat traffic violence in the same way that we treat other dangerous crimes,” he said.

Adams made continuous reference to city workers. ‘Without a strong working class, this city cannot survive. That’s why today I outlined how we plan to build a city for working people, one that is more affordable, safer, cleaner and more livable,’ said Mayor Adams.

Regarding the job, Adams also mentioned the launch of a “Learning Accelerator” that would aim to place 30,000 New Yorkers in apprenticeship programs by 2030, with roles in technology.

There was a conspicuous absence of references to asylum seekers, despite Adams having spoken especially on the subject recently.

After a visit to El Paso earlier this month, he called the border crisis a “disaster” and said the city may need $2 billion in federal assistance to handle immigrants arriving in the city.

His only mention of the problem came about an hour after the speech. ‘Over the past year, our ability to care has been tested by the asylum seeker crisis. New Yorkers rose to the occasion, as they always do,” he said.

“Since last spring, more than 42,000 asylum seekers have come to our city and we have provided them with shelter, food, education, medical care and legal support.”

Earlier this month, the New York police released statistics summarizing crime throughout 2022.

Those numbers painted a grim picture of the city’s efforts to tackle crime that has skyrocketed since the pandemic, a campaign that had been touted as successful several times during the Adams year.

Adams’ State of the City address and plan to help the homeless comes just days after Chase announced that banks in New York City will close ATMs at 5 p.m. due to “rising crime and vagrancy”.

The bank said that the lobbies at a small number of branches in the city would be closed at 5 pm or 6 pm, aligning with the normal hours of its other banking services.

In a tweet, Chase said this was due to “increased crime and loitering occurring in these previously 24/7 lobbies.”

But the bank, which has assets worth more than $3 trillion, declined to confirm the number of branches or neighborhoods affected. In a statement to DailyMail.com, Chase said: “We review our ATM hours on a case-by-case basis and, for a variety of reasons, we may decide to temporarily close some overnight.”