Mayor Adams Commits to Care

New York Mayor Eric Adams has committed to using his second year in office to provide free healthcare to the city's homeless and crack down on its 'most wanted' criminals.

Adams made the vow on Thursday during his second-ever State of the City speech at the Queens Theatre in Flushing.

Although the mayor provided little by way of details as to how the scheme - which could cost the city millions - would be funded in practice, he explained that providing free healthcare to those experiencing homelessness would alleviate pressure on the city in the long run.

He said during the address that his Working People's Agenda for 2023 was built on 'four pillars that are essential to building a city': jobs, safety, housing, and care.

The cleanliness of the city's streets was also addressed, with the mayor saying he would continue to fight 'rats, trash and traffic'.

During his first State of the City speech in 2022, his emphasis had been on public safety.

He announced during the speech on January 26 that his administration would work with the federal government to allow New Yorkers that have been homeless for more than seven days access to free healthcare.

'Connecting New Yorkers experiencing homelessness to ongoing primary care, behavioral health care, and social services is more cost-efficient than the cycle of hospitalizations and emergency room visits that so many people experience,' he said.

Adams also took the opportunity to raise the issue of crime. Although the city's murder and shooting rates dropped in the first half of this month as compared with last year, certain types of crimes remain up, such as rape and robbery, as well as overall crimes.

But on Thursday the mayor committed to making the streets and neighborhoods safer by taking the most-wanted criminals off the streets, who he said are responsible for much of the crime in the city.

'We are getting New York City's 'Most Wanted' off our streets and investing millions to make our city cleaner and greener,' he said.

'Time after time, we see crime after crime from a core group of repeat offenders. There are roughly 1,700 known offenders that are responsible for a disproportionate amount of violent crime in our city,' he said.

Adams was quick to pay compliments to Governor Kathy Hochul, who was in the front row of the Queens Theatre on Thursday.

'On so many issues, she has been there for our city right from the start,' Adams said. Several items on his agenda will require support from Albany.

Adams was prepared to acknowledge that  there are issues with how criminals are handled and that there is a backlog of criminal cases to be handled.

He said: 'We look forward to working with the Governor and the legislature to make changes in the law that ensure defendants are provided with the speedy trial that our Constitution guarantees and that victims and their families are provided justice in a timely manner.... (Read more)

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