By Carol Tannenhauser
At 10 pm on Thursday night, a 53-year-old man, identified by police as homeless, “was lying on the train bed when a northbound #1 train struck him,” an NYPD spokesperson said. He was taken to Mt. Sinai Morningside hospital where he was pronounced dead at 10:30 pm.
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My condolences to any family this man might have, and to the driver of the train who was likely traumatized by the experience, though there was probably nothing he/she could do.
He must have have been desperately sad. When we respect people by ignoring them, only the most insane wouldn’t have thoughts of suicide.
Yet another tragedy.
This morning in the NY Times: “Advocates for Mentally Ill New Yorkers Ask Court to Halt Removal Plan.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/08/nyregion/nyc-mental-health-restraining-order.html
It bothers me that they get to call themselves “advocates for mentally ill”. They don’t get to side step the question of whether the existing system is better or worse than the proposed one. They shouldn’t be too proud of it, for sure.
Without a huge infusion of resources to provide psychiatric care, social work follow-up, and effective supportive housing, not to mention training and hiring so that the use of police in EDP encounters could be minimized, Adams’s “plan” is designed to address not the distress of the mentally ill homeless, but the distress the comfortable feel when forced to view poor and sick people. If it came with those resources, we could at least talk about whether the standard for hospitalization is too high (there’s an argument to be made). As it stands, it’s a sad joke.
Is it true we currently spend 55k per homeless person every year?
“Adams’s “plan” is designed to address not the distress of the mentally ill homeless, but the distress the comfortable feel when forced to view poor and sick people.”
I find the numerous posts like this very insulting. The same homeless men have been in my neighborhood for 10 +years so how can you believe that my neighbors and I aren’t affected by their suffering and only care about how it makes ‘us/the comfortable’ feel? They were never included in your hotel advocate group because they were ‘street’ homeless. I don’t know how they’ve survived as long as they have. One of them had a breakdown in the middle of 71st street at 4:00 am and he was literally screaming for help. If we can’t call 311 or 911 then what do you propose we do?
100% agree Sarah. I would recommend that a number of the commenters here read this excellent piece from someone who is truly on the front lines – a NYC paramedic: ”
Rather than looking for a superficial fix, Mayor Adams should turn his attention to our neglected health care apparatus. We must heavily invest in social services, housing and mental health care if we want to avoid this ongoing tragedy. We need this kind of investment across the United States, where there’s a serious post-pandemic mental health crisis”.
https://www-nytimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.nytimes.com/2022/12/07/opinion/nyc-paramedic-mental-health-crisis.amp.html
Good article.
In the meantime, while we’re waiting for the perfect, we can just sit by and applaud ourselves while letting homeless people die like this. Or we can watch them freeze on the sidewalk while patting ourselves on the back for letting them have autonomy to make choices.
If I ever become mentally ill and homeless, I hope the City will step in and provide some shelter for me, even if I don’t think I want it.
Sarah-
Let’s posit for a moment that “huge infusions of resources” for all the items that you then list are not about to be spent on this need, one of many pressing needs that we as a city face, as NYC sales taxes, income taxes, residential real estate taxes, taken together, are already some of the highest in the nation.
If that’s the case, may this proposal by Mayor Adams not be a step in a good direction for people at risk of harming themselves or others?
Must the good be the enemy of the perfect??
As I understand it, the plan may treat the homeless person with medication and/or hospitalization, but there is no concrete plan to house that person afterwards. So, the cycle will continue. Eventually the same homeless person reappears on the streets.
Exactly right, Sarah.
Poor man. Poor driver.
Wow – didn’t realize the thread from “homeless” to “mentally ill” to “suicidal” was that tight and taut…
Hi everyone. I know the man that was hit by the train. He was in still is my best friend.