Bragg: Banks' cash seized to fund homelessness 'navigators'

“Joe” is homeless or on drugs, maybe both. He sleeps in a park and panhandles, “perhaps yelling at no one in particular.” A “Neighborhood Navigator” offers “Joe” a cup of coffee or a slice of pizza to gain his trust. The next day the navigator brings him hot tea, gloves or warm food.

“Maria” has “a behavioral health issue” and has been arrested a third time for shoplifting from Duane Reade — and at arraignment she’s given a no-jail diversion and is paired with a “Court-based Navigator” to help with her housing, transportation, social services, and food.

Both "Joe" and "Maria" are composite characters described Wednesday by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as the targets of a $9 million program to combat homelessness and drug abuse by providing "navigators" to connect them with social services. The funds come from a pot of $250 million in forfeiture money seized from banks’ allegedly ill-gotten gains.

“We address recidivism and thereby advance public safety. I think we’ve all had the experiences as Manhattanites and citygoers — disconcerting, sometimes scary — to see our neighbors, who are plainly unwell, whether it’s openly using drugs, or behaving in a disturbing manner, talking to themselves, either above ground on our streets or below ground in our subways,” Bragg said at an announcement in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.

“These individuals need help — as do our neighborhoods and our small businesses.”

Bragg’s announcement comes two weeks after New York City Mayor Eric Adams directed NYPD cops and other municipal personnel to involuntarily hospitalize those who are believed to pose a danger to themselves, even if they posed no risk of harming others. Criteria to be considered include an inability to provide for one’s own basic needs, such as shelter, food or health care. Adams’ directive was immediately criticized by some civil liberties groups as violating the rights of homeless people. The directive is being challenged in federal court.

Unlike Adams’ directive, participation in Bragg’s program is to be voluntary. More than a dozen local politicians, social service providers and other officials were at Bragg's announcement to lend support.

Asked whether they are in favor of Adams’ directive, only Times Square Alliance president Tom Harris raised his hand.

The Bragg program, created with the City University of New York Institute for State and Local Governance, is separate both from Adams’ directive and from whatever a court might order in a criminal case.

The “navigators” are expected to hit the streets and be in courthouses in late 2023 or early 2024, said Bragg spokeswoman Danielle Filson. A news release said the program has enough money to last three years, and dozens of the navigators will be dispatched. Targeted neighborhoods include Chelsea, Chinatown, Harlem, Hell’s Kitchen, Inwood, the Lower East Side, Midtown West and Washington Heights.

An apparent spike in random attacks in the city by troubled, mentally disturbed homeless people have made headlines in recent years, and the government has struggled to respond within the bounds of what’s effective, constitutionally permissible and politically feasible.

At the announcement, state Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan), whose district includes several of the targeted neighborhoods, held up a funeral card for Michelle Go, a 40-year-old woman who was pushed to her death in January into the path of an oncoming subway train at nearby Times Square station by a schizophrenic 61-year-old man who was later deemed unfit for trial and committed.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.