‘crackdown’ on mentally ill homeless

NEW YORK: New York will start involuntarily hospitalising mentally ill people who live in the street or on the subway, Mayor Eric Adams said in a new push to fight crime.

“If severe mental illness is causing someone to be unsheltered and a danger to themselves, we have a moral obligation to help them get the treatment and care they need,” said Adams, a moderate Democrat and former police officer.

Next year the state legislature and executive branch will consider a Bill allowing police, healthcare professionals and social workers to intervene and seek to hospitalise by force if necessary homeless people deemed to have psychiatric problems.