 My name is Anne Williams-Eisem and I'm the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services. We are here this morning to talk about another layer of support that we have for our brothers and sisters in New York City who are experiencing homelessness. I'll now turn the mic over to the mayor to discuss the details of this announcement. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Deputy Mayor. And I want to thank Kathy Wilde and the partnership for just hearing the call. As we stated last week with Norma Siegel and the Arm of Volunteers, this initiative is something that Kathy Wilde and these business leaders decided that this problem is all of our problems. And I think far too often we fail to recognize the foundational role our business community continues to play in our city and their level of benevolence is not always something that they talk about, they just do the work every day. 61 businesses came together to raise approximately $8 million for this important partnership with Breaking Ground. We can achieve great success when all New Yorkers come together. And that is what we're seeing now. And when you think of this initiative, the Homeless Assistance Fund, a public-private partnership to tackle street homelessness. You see it every day. This administration has made it clear we are not going to just walk past our brothers and sisters who have fallen on hard times, our fellow New Yorkers. And we want to continue to meet homeless people where they are and build that trust and the partnership that's needed to move them into permanent housing. This initiative will offer them the assistance they urgently need. And I said this then at the beginning of my administration, I'll say it now. There is no dignity to living on the street. We can do more and we must do more and today we are doing more. We're going to restore the sense of confidence and trust in the city and it is crucial for a long-term recovery plan, particularly those who are dealing with substance abuse and those who are dealing with mental health illnesses. We cannot do it alone. We need partners. I continue to say that. And today we are seeing those partners. Heroes are not only wearing blue capes, they're wearing blue suits, blue dresses, and they are not sitting back and allowing this crisis to take place. We need the support of our business partners. And that's what the partnership is about. And I'm proud to say that these 61 businesses stood up and I'm sure more are going to stand up. New Yorkers want to help. This money will be put to good use. We will be expanding breaking grounds, connect to care. They are doing it right. It is a great product that has proven to be successful. Their model is delivering services to those who need it the most. Breaking ground teams will help homeless New Yorkers find housing, access the benefits and take care of immediate needs like clothing, food, and medicine. I've watched this team of breaking ground, feel personnel, interact with homeless, and really have the benefits of knowing how to bring them inside. And the most important aspect of this, they're able to go into private locations that we are not allowed to go into with the real partnership that we are creating. This will just de-escalate disorderly behavior and connect homeless New Yorkers to detox, substance use, or mental health services if they need them. Finding a solution to our homeless crisis is clearly one of our top priorities. Not only does it deal with the sense of disorder in our city, but it also leaves far too many people behind so that they can't get the services they need. And that is why we're trying different approaches. You know and I know that the approaches we have carried out in the past, they have been failing. And if you continue to do the same things the same way, you're going to get the same results. This generational crisis has been ignored for too long. We refuse to ignore it and we're going to meet it head on. And so Kathy has done so much in this city as a leader of the partnership. And I just want to thank her for spearheading this endeavor. And when you see some of the companies behind us, they are our major employers. They ensure our tax base remains steady and strong. The countless number of men and women who are here today, they are the background and the foundation of what allows this city to be New York City. And all the businesses who are participating, we commend them. We're saying this loudly and clearly. This is our city. This is your city. What happens in this city is going to happen to all of us. And that is a message and signal we're going to carry out throughout this administration. There is no wall between this administration and the business community. We're in this together and together we're going to solve some of these major problems that we are facing. And so I want to personally thank all of the businesses who are behind us as well as the businesses who are not here for stepping up and stating, solving the problems of this city as we navigate our way throughout COVID, the economic crisis, public safety, homelessness, and proving the city that we live in. It is something that we're coming together to accomplish. And I know there are those who would rather us stay departed and not unite together. That is not going to happen. New York City is invincible. And we are invincible because of the people who are in this city. And that invincibility is something that's going to cascade throughout this entire country. The problems we're facing here are national problems, but the solutions are coming from this city. And I want to thank everyone who's participating in this endeavor, Deputy Mayor. Thank you so much, Mayor. And now I'd like to bring Kathy Wilde. I would say a good friend of the administration, but more importantly a great New Yorker who really is spearheading this effort and brought us all together. So, Kathy, the President and CEO of the Partnership of New York City, please come up and say a few words. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. And thank you, Mayor, for bringing us together, which is what this city needs. And you have been outreaching to the business community, and we really appreciate that. And we're happy today that so many companies have been willing to step up. This is in response to a survey of employees, more than 10,000 employees, who responded when they were asked what's your greatest concern about the direction of the city and conditions in the city. They said it was the homelessness, mental health situation, and we've got to be part of solving that problem, stepping up with support for the city and state's efforts in that regard. And so we're very happy to be part of this effort today, and we're grateful to the 61 companies represented here, all of whose names you will recognize who are major employers, that the mayor has invited their participation in help in our city's recovery, and they are joining together today to tackle one of the most important problems. So, thanks. Thank you so much, Kathy. Now I'd like to invite Mr. Steve Schwartz to the microphone to say a few words. President and CEO at Hearst. Well, thank you. I want to start out by thanking Kathy on behalf of all of us at the partnership for her leadership on this, on behalf of all the companies of the partnership, my co-chair, Rob Speyer, and Mr. Mayor, we very much thank you for your leadership, and we really appreciate the opportunity to be able to work with you and your administration and the fabulous folks at Break and Ground on this important initiative. This is what the partnership was really created to do, is partner with the city government, partner with fabulous community organizations and try to make this city a better place to live and to tackle this important initiative of homelessness and the related issues of mental health issues and substance abuse and to do it in a compassionate way and a pragmatic way and a proven way because Break and Ground has been already working with the city and been working with some of our companies in their neighborhoods. We're not suggesting that this alone will solve the problem, but we are suggesting it's a step forward and that we will learn from it and we'll gather information and data and where there are other gaps in the system and how that information can be passed on to the city and to the lawmakers in Albany. And as the mayor said, we're not done. We very much hope other companies will join us in this initiative and the more money we raise, the more neighborhoods in the city where there is an issue that we can have the Break and Ground colleagues there. So again, Mr. Mayor, thank you for your partnership and thanks to your administration and thanks to Break and Ground. It just reminds me, everywhere we go and people say, what more can we do? And so giving New Yorkers the ability to step up and to partner with us is just a great opportunity. So thank you so much, Stephen. Now I'd like to invite to the microphone Jose Tavares, Vice President at Bank of America. Jose. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. I'm actually going to speak in Spanish this morning. Buenos dias a todos. Primero me gustaría agradecerle al alcalde Eric Adams, a la vice alcaldesa, William Zison, a Cathy Wilde, y a Brenda Rosen por poner una marcha esta iniciativa para ayudar a los desemparados en nuestra ciudad de Nueva York. Hoy, Bank of America, con otras 61 compañías para lanzar un proyecto que conectará a New Yorkinos desemparados con refugios, servicios y con los cuidados que necesitan y merecen. Estamos colaborando con agencias municipales aquí en Nueva York y la respetada organización en ánimo de lucro Breaking Ground. Juntos, planeamos lanzar campañas de apoyo en centro de transporte público y otros lugares donde hay un gran número de desemparados en la ciudad para poder facilitarles los servicios adecuados. Además, Breaking Ground compartirá información con lo más de 12 millones empleados de Bank of America aquí en Nueva York para mostrarles cómo pueden actuar en caso de que alguien necesita ayuda. Desde este colectivo empresarial hemos aportado ocho millones de dólares a este proyecto porque reconocemos que esta situación no es solamente una situación para el público y el sector privado, sino es una situación que tenemos toda responsabilidad de tratar de arreglar. Todos tenemos que formar parte de esta solución. Muchísimas gracias a todos. Un buen día y un buen reto del verano. Muchas gracias. Thank you for your support and for embracing this public-private partnership to reach more unsheltered people in this city. Thanks especially to Kathy Wild from the partnership for New York City and the many member companies who have generously contributed to the Homeless Assistance Fund. Thank you to Breaking Ground's board for being so supportive of our work to aid individuals across the boroughs who suffer from the tragedy of homelessness. Over the past few years Breaking Ground has piloted its Connect to Care program with some of New York's prominent businesses including Macy's MetLife Foundation, Starbucks and Vornado to bring dedicated outreach teams into targeted, privately owned areas within the city like retail stores and cafes which are historically hard to reach areas. Thank you to our program's great success and the growing interest from leading companies who also want to see this level of care built out across the city will be able to accelerate connections to services and housing opportunities for those hard-to-reach individuals experiencing homelessness in our city today. Thank you and now I'm passing it back to Mayor Adams. You stand right here next to me can I ask you some questions? You know this New York media. Yes open to a few questions. How many people is the city going to be able to help with those $8 million and who's going to manage the money? Breaking Ground can answer that question of the number of people, this is not a fixed number. This is a complex of scenarios that take place on the street. Breaking Ground has a proving track record of interacting with people in coffee shops vestibules of banks and other locations and so it's about how they do the job that they do so well but you want to respond to that? Sure So this will allow us to have nearly 100 more outreach workers in high density areas in Midtown Manhattan, Lower Manhattan and in downtown Brooklyn and it will allow us to collaborate and coordinate with our city funded outreach teams to provide additional levels of service and to reach people that we ordinarily wouldn't reach. We've been able to do that through our piloted connect care programs over the past few years and we've been able to identify and engage with and house folks that have slipped through the cracks and today we are being given the opportunity to help hundreds more folks that are needing our help especially those that have otherwise not received services because of where they've been located. Mayor Adams, you were asked a version of this question last week at the other announcement about homeless outreach. The city's Department of Homeless Services and DSS budget is around $2 billion and I know you like to take a look at the agency budget to see where the money is getting spent what does it say I guess to that budget for the very large homeless services budget that requires some $8 million from private businesses if there's not the appropriate funds within that $2 billion to address the needs of particularly the street homeless population is there an issue with the Department of Homeless Services and DSS's budget overall that will require the donation from private businesses? We are constantly looking at the budget. I stated I am not pleased with many things in the homeless budget and how we have to do things differently as we even looked at the many housing units that we had unfilled when we inherited over 2000 when I took office we were able to expeditiously fill a thousand of those and our numbers probably higher now but we are going to examine the budget see where we're spending our dollars and the goal is how to get people into permanent housing particularly housing where our street homelessness to get the wraparound services they deserve and that's the complexity but let's be clear the housing crisis that we are having is going to make sure that we're spending the dollars correctly and we get the help and the partnerships that we're receiving now because this is a crisis that was only aggravated by the effects of asylum seekers and so we need to make sure every dollar is being spent appropriately I'm not 100% satisfied yet until I see where the dollars are going and continue to do a forensic audit on those dollars because tax payers deserve better and we are going to give them better This question is from Brenta Where do you place the homeless and do you have them in city locations or do you have your own locations that you run Sure So Breaking Ground has over 4,000 units of permanent supportive housing as the mayor noted that's permanent housing with wraparound supports for those with mental health issues and other chronic conditions We also have over 500 units of transitional safe haven and stabilization housing to bring folks from the streets directly into those units We have a pipeline development pipeline on both the transitional end and the permanent end and of course if folks want to go into shelter we transport and help them access city shelter We also have the homeless crisis who are you talking about exactly who is ignored I think the city we've normalized people sleeping on the streets in our subway system in our vestibules in our bank ATM locations we've normalized it in the first month in office when I went out and visited people in encampments talked to people intent and realizing some people were dealing with mental health issues some people were just down on their luck and I refuse to just ignore it I refuse to just walk past so we can't just point to previous mayors of a 40-year problem we've normalized this in our city and it is inhumane and so when we decided to do the initiative of removing encampments of our subway system first week 22 people decided to take us up on our offer now to date we had up to 1800 people because we didn't ignore the problem we're doing the same thing on our streets and so when I say we've ignored the problem we've ignored the problem as New Yorkers everyone want to point to one administration as New Yorkers we've normalized our fellow brothers and sisters sleeping on the street and I'm not going to normalize that what kind of examinates that's something that happened this last budget process or what kind of examination happened this last year well you know this is a probably a 40-year crisis and I know it's really hard for people to actually believe that I was not here for 7 years I was here for 7 months and I want to take us time to go into where these dollars are going to make sure those dollars are carrying out the mission of this administration and that is what we're doing we're looking at how we spend in our money how we spend in our dollars are we getting the product that we deserve I'm the CEO of NYC and just as these corporations must make sure every dollar they bring in is producing a good product and so we're in a process of looking at how we're spending our money and are the taxpayers of this city receiving the product that they deserve I don't believe we are and we're going to continue to dig into every dollar and see what is our mission and are we fulfilling that mission so I don't know if I'll take those in the exact order in which you asked with respect to the permanent supportive housing the turnover is low the permanent supportive housing is rent stabilized housing and when people come in and receive the services that they need to become and remain stable they tend to stay in those units and they can they have leases we as people move out or otherwise leave for other reasons we do backfill those units with homeless folks with social needs, mental health issues substance use disorder and other chronic conditions so we fill those units as quickly as possible there's no shortage of people waiting to get into breaking ground housing we move folks from transitional safe haven housing into our permanent units to then free up transitional units to bring in more folks from the street does that answer your the vacancy rate is probably less than 5% that is why we're always looking for new sites and have a robust development pipeline we're also bringing on more transitional safe haven beds we're we have to continuously find new locations for emergency housing because we're required by law to do so and we are continuously finding new locations and so what we're going to be doing we're going to reach out to all of our electives who are advocating on behalf of our brothers and sisters who are homeless and we're going to ask them to assist us in finding locations within their districts so that we can actually find locations to place our homeless brothers and sisters and those who are seeking refuge here in our city everyone must be in the game you know let's house our homeless but let's get them up to the street but just don't put them on my street can't do that we have a little over my briefing this morning stated that we have a little over 3,000 we're getting an average of 100 per day those are large numbers and again not only are we dealing with housing but we have to deal with food we have to deal with basic necessities everything from baby supplies there's so much more that goes into this land translation services there's a lot that goes into dealing with someone that is here in the city for the first time thank you everyone I'm going to spare you the off topics Marsha so I'd like to ask you about an incident that involved two transit cops who were attacked when they tried to stop two 16 year olds 16 year olds who were jumping through I wonder why if you think that that behavior is acceptable but a bigger question has to do with the great state age laws part of the criminal justice plane had asked the legislature to change the race of these laws 17 to 18 people at age 16 could be charged in this case the family court they will release one of the people had a gun charge so how is this acceptable that a person with a gun charge who attacks an NYPD transit cop is allowed to walk the streets and doesn't say something about our laws that they have to be charged well there's one aspect of that that was missing July 20 of 2022 just a few days ago he's arrested for robbery catch release repeat catch release repeat this person was arrested for robbery a few days ago now he's back he's not going to pay his fare the transit officer communicated with him he decided that he was not going to leave the system the transit officer could have arrested him for not paying his fare he didn't do that told him to leave the system and response we saw in the video would happen just a total disregard for public safety not only for public safety for that transit officer but also for the person he robbed this is what we are saying about what is happening in our criminal justice system so yes we're reexamining the bail laws in the area of violent offenders violent offenders robberies of violent crime so as soon as we catch them the system releases them and they repeat the action that is just when I say we to laugh in stock of the country this is what I'm talking about how do we keep our city safe when the other parts of the criminal justice system they have abandoned our public safety apparatus and we need to look at violent offenders and this is a clear case of that how would you find it sort of ironic that you run the same page as Lee Zeldin as a public and candidate for governor and calling on the legislature to change the bail laws and also I think you must be also talking about the ways the age law do you think that that also should be reduced to 16 and you know you're supporting you're on the same page as Zeldin well no I don't think it's ironic I'm on the same page as Zeldin I think it's ironic that he finally caught up to Kathy Hokel and Kathy made it clear that she was not willing to pass the budget without dealing with some of the issues around criminal justice of deformed I don't call it reform and so I believe that he has finally raised his voice for something that Governor Hokel and I have been talking about for far too long but also let's be clear it was his campaign manager or staffer who released the person on a lesser charge then that attacked him the federal government had to step in so in one breath he can't talk about lax actions from the criminal justice system and on another breath the person that represents him is releasing a person that attacked him on stage consistency and message must match the consistency in actions where the legislature despite their pleas despite the many times that you went to Albany to talk to the legislature even the Zoom conversations you have with members of the legislature asking for change asking the governor for change asking the legislature for change fighting with Latrice Walker about it how come this hasn't happened and what are you going to do to push it forward now well I don't think that is only I am asking for change I think the people of this city I think for change and I'm on the side of the good people of this city and I'm going to continue I'm going to continue to say that I'm going to stay on the side of the good people of this city and so we're going to continue our pursuit we're not going to surrender this issue we're going to have a public facing approach to let the public know who are the repeated offenders how these laws are hurting our public safety battle the more we inform the public the public is going to make the right decision or who they want in Albany and thanks a lot that was his campaign co-chair of that that failed to give him the appropriate charges his campaign co-chairs in terms of the state legislature do you think that the situation is so bad with his casualties to repeat padding that we see over again and some of the most horrific crimes were witnessing a special emergency session of the state legislature to deal with it I hope they would do that I hope that just as we had a special call to return to Albany to deal with the ruling on right to carry I believe that Albany should consider coming and revisiting some of the violence we're seeing a repeated offenders and we need to be clear on that we're not talking about someone that stills an apple we're talking about someone that has repeatedly used violence in our city robberies grandloss in these burglaries shootings carrying a gun this group of people are repeated offenders in our community they're hurting our public safety in terms of the teenagers there was a 17 year old arrested in the shooting of a 14 year old in Keith Tarland if you could do anything with these teens you've done increased programs jobs restored some of the summer streets programs what else would you do to really try to turn it around with the youth I believe what we're doing with the crisis management teams with our law enforcement officers you know I'm a big prevention intervention and prevention intervention is right now our neighborhood safety team we're going to be moving guns off our streets but we have a lot of preventive programs Saturday night lights 100,000 summer youth employment our partnership with crisis management team what probation is doing with young people we're zeroing in on those who are on the pathway of violence and we're going to continue to do that our summer internship programs year round internship programs zeroing in on those who are in foster care those who are living in homeless shelters we're looking at the pattern of those who are committing crimes so that we could actually stop those who are committing crimes but at the same time we have to deal with those who are actually on the streets right now quite well how are you I want to ask you about home detox so right now the data that's available is on ethnic data broken down reviews testing so to test any delusion through your symptomatic to get the swab see if you've got your home detox I wanted to know if you would press your health department to publish data of people who are getting vaccinated typically preemptively what I'm hearing is that a lot of white people are going up to like Harlem and Bronx, Richie Torres talked to me saying people who would be caught down in the Bronx are going up for a monkey cop vaccine and so I can't tell whether or not this these anecdotes are database right to see if that's true so it's curious if you have if you're going to push your health department to release that data to make sure that it's being distributed especially as more vaccines are coming in yeah we saw that during COVID that people were going coming from outside the zip codes and getting the COVID shots the vaccines and so we're looking at that we must first find out that if it's going to in any way impede on privacy laws HIPAA laws so we're looking at that and I have a conversation with the Department of Health and see that's something we should do but we do need to analyze that data I know we're moving locations within those areas and I'll speak with Dr. Fassan to find out exactly how we insure we're given the shots to those who live in those communities the commission has done an amazing job as we get the vaccines in we're getting them out the door and I don't believe from the briefing he gave me this morning I don't believe we have any more appointments because we are just filling the appointments so we'll look at the staffing he's getting and he knows whatever he needs to insure that as we get the vaccines that we're going to get them out the door we are going to make sure that happens we have not I've not heard from him in the briefing he gave me this morning that we're dealing with a staffing issue but I'll revisit that with him no I communicated with Governor Hoku the importance that both of us share around making sure that we keep dangerous people off the streets she would make that call I think would be a good idea that we need to revisit while we're still in the middle of the summer some of the laws that we have but it's really the timelessness for the future because whatever we enact right now how much of an impact it is going to have on those who are on the streets but their thing judges can do right now they can use their discretion right now and I'm calling on them to do that I think their things prosecutors can do right now we need to expedite some of these sentences we need to expedite us getting these cases inside our courts to take dangerous people off the streets so I think that while we're waiting for changes in these laws which is going to be uphill battle the things we can do right now we communicated over the weekend about a series of things in public safety were one of the things on our on our schedule to that question was not presented to her I think that no matter what we do when you're dealing with a crisis there's always a moment of reflection there's always a moment of improvement I believe there have been great partners we're dealing with a crisis we're dealing with from COVID to monkeypox to the potentiality of a new polio case that came about so there's a series of health care issues that are taking place I believe at the heart of that is our ability to collaborate and communicate and this White House has done just that that's collaborated they have communicated when we communicated with them that 90% of the cases of monkeypox or in New York City 90% of the cases in New York State are in New York City and we communicated with the disproportionate number that we received they stepped up they responded they increased the numbers of vaccines that we received and so I think the partnership in the collaboration and communication has been amazing there's always room for improvement but I don't have any real criticism on how they have stepped up to the plate for New York officers who are trying to enforce a variety of life offenses what do you attribute that to? I mean everything goes in this criminal justice system that we're watching of anyone who saw that video of that attack on those two police officers that has to outrage you those officers were assaulted by a person who was previously arrested for robberies 26 you know I live dog years now as a mayor six days ago think about that six days ago he robbed an innocent New Yorker reportedly and he was out to assault the police officer and so when you look at the increase on assaults for quality of life issues is because it's just this total erosion of respecting the innocent people of this city and we're not going to stand by and allow that to happen and I'm sure the chief tells you that we're continuing to enforce quality of life issues even with those increases those officers are still out there enforcing quality of life issues that person that assaulted the officer was released on his own on ROR they say how do you fight that you fight it by being persistent and that's what we're doing we're going to continue to be on the ground and fight these these lords hold on hold on hold on how are you not going to call them you know what I'm saying Julian to follow up two weeks ago I was at the crime stats news conference yes I'm listening and I asked the police commissioner because there was cynicism rates for certain crimes I think it was robbery grand lost me 25% 25% of people arrested for that particular type of crime committed it again in 60 days so I said why why isn't Carl Hasty and Andrew Stewart cousins here why won't you invite them to your press conference and have them hear this do you think that's a good idea I have never heard you presenting idea that was not a good idea we and I had the same conversation with the police commissioner and as I stated I think it was last week we have to really start showing what this issue is because people have a belief that the police department is not making arrests and they're not finding these dangerous people that's just not true and so we are going to start showing the public how the other parts of the criminal justice system those parts are failing us police are doing their job gun arrest many of the dangerous crimes predatory crimes the arrests are being made catch release repeat