MTA head pleads with de Blasio to address subway mental-health crisis
The MTA’s subways chief demanded that Mayor de Blasio crack down on the mentally ill people plaguing the system in an extraordinary statement after a man pushed a woman in front of a train — triggering a day of sparring with City Hall over the size and scope of the crisis.
“It’s not fair to the woman, to the people who are using the system. It’s not fair to the woman who experienced this today. We have a crisis in this city, and it absolutely has to be addressed,” Interim NYC Transit President Sarah Feinberg (right) fumed to reporters in a briefing at the 14th Street-Union Square station where just hours earlier Aditya Vemulapati allegedly shoved the 40-year-old woman onto the tracks.
“It’s got to be addressed, and I’m desperate for this mayor or the next mayor to take it on because we’ve got a long way to go.”
Thursday’s attack on the northbound platform for the Lexington Avenue subway came just a day after a man shoved a straphanger onto the southbound tracks at 42nd Street-Bryant Park.
Records provided by an MTA source indicate that the number of such attacks had doubled since last year — conflicting with NYPD statistics that suggest no appreciable rise in subway-shoving incidents.
The source said 14 people had been pushed this year compared with seven last year, but the city’s numbers show 16 incidents through Nov. 15 — which rises to 18 counting the two recent attacks — compared with 16 last year.
“The city is committed to using every tool to promote safety and connect people with mental-health needs to treatment,” Avery Cohen, a spokeswoman for the de Blasio administration, said in a statement.
She added that the city’s Health Department alone spends more than $300 million a year on treating and providing services to the seriously mentally ill and that social workers had convinced 1,500 homeless people who once lived on the subways to check in to shelters for at least one night.
But the high-profile attacks have reignited a debate over how best to treat New Yorkers struggling with serious mental illness.
The chairman of the City Council’s homelessness committee, Stephen Levin (D-Brooklyn), said he was frustrated by the constant pingpong between the city and state over whose responsibility it is provide help to those who need it.
“We need to have some clarity between the city and state: ‘What is our plan here?’ and put funding into it,” Levin said. “I’m absolutely certain that the answer shouldn’t be more police.
“The state has not given the city the resources it needs to help people with mental-health conditions and emotionally distressed people,” he added. “Instead of putting money into social workers, they prioritized putting 700 new cops on the subway and they’re not even coordinated with the NYPD.”
But Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) said it was time for city officials to use Kendra’s Law — named for subway-shove victim Kendra Webdale — more aggressively to demand state judges compel struggling New Yorkers into temporary treatment.
“There’s nothing compassionate about not giving our mentally ill homeless population the treatment they need,” Holden said. Holden also called for the creation of a “statute that requires mandatory treatment if a subject is shown to be unable to care for his or her own basic needs.”
A third lawmaker, Councilman Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn), worried the pandemic was making it harder for New Yorkers to get the help they need.
“I believe unchecked mental illness may be the real “second wave”. We must do more for those who need help,” the public safety committee member said. “And we need to keep our city safe, especially for essential workers right now. Without addressing these issues, we cannot fully recover.”