Mayor Eric Adams has announced a major success in tackling homelessness in New York City, with over 3,500 homeless individuals moved from streets and subways into permanent housing. This includes more than 1,000 people from the subway system, thanks to the Subway Safety Plan’s targeted outreach. The city is also expanding its safety net with 400 new Safe Haven beds by the end of 2025 and launching the “End Culture of Anything Goes” campaign to improve street safety and quality of life through better laws, outreach, and housing investments.
Mayor Adams Announces City Has Connected 3,500+ Homeless New Yorkers From Streets and Subways to Permanent Housing
Figure Includes 1,000+ New Yorkers Moved From Subway to Permanent Homes Thanks to Mayor Adams’ Subway Safety Plan. City Continues to Aggressively Expand Safety Net with 400 New Safe Haven Beds Coming Online by End of 2025 /
Announcement Launches Administration’s “End Culture of Anything Goes” Campaign, Highlighting Mayor Adams’ Efforts to Change Culture, Laws, and Investments That Improve Quality of Life and Prevent Public Disorder on City Streets
– New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Social Services (DSS) Commissioner Molly Wasow Park today celebrated major progress in the city’s efforts to connect New Yorkers experiencing homelessness to permanent housing, announcing the placement of more than 3,500 New Yorkers who were previously living unsheltered in permanent homes. The milestones come as a result of key Adams administration initiatives — like Mayor Adams’ Subway Safety Plan, which conducts targeted outreach across end-of-line subway stations to engage harder-to-reach New Yorkers experiencing homelessness — as well as historic investments in housing and services for this population.
More specifically, the city has placed over 1,000 New Yorkers who were living unsheltered in the subway system into permanent homes since early 2022. In total, since the start of this administration, the city has also helped more than 3,500 New Yorkers transition from living on city streets and subways to permanent housing through the aggressive expansion of and investment in Safe Haven and stabilization beds, both of which offer specialized transitional housing support for individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
Today’s announcement also kicks off Mayor Adams’ “End Culture of Anything Goes” campaign, the administration’s commitment to end the culture of ‘anything goes’ and improve quality of life on city streets. The campaign will highlight the work the administration has done to date to change the culture and laws that prevented people with severe mental illness from getting the help they needed, while simultaneously making the investments necessary to support outreach, harm reduction, wraparound services, and housing — all in an effort to make lasting impacts in lives and communities. Mayor Adams is bringing the same energy and approach that proved to be successful in carving a new path to help people with severe mental illness to addressing other health crises playing out on city streets and will soon lay out how he plans to realize that vision.
“From the beginning, we said we needed to build trust with the city’s unsheltered population, whether outside, on our subways, or in our shelters, and in the three years since our administration began this work, we have now connected more than 3,500 homeless individuals to permanent housing, and thousands more to shelter,” said Mayor Adams. “This success would not be possible without our historic investments in Safe Haven and stabilization beds, our record-breaking creation of affordable housing, and a laser-focus on addressing homelessness on our streets and in our subways. More work remains, but it’s clear that the years of walking by New Yorkers in need are over and this milestone is further proof that we’re continuing to make New York City a safer, more affordable city.”
“As we mark important progress strengthening pathways to stable housing for New Yorkers experiencing unsheltered homelessness, we resolve to keep building on person-centered solutions that meet our vulnerable neighbors where they are,” said DSS Commissioner Wasow Park. “Through the city’s vital investments in the Safe Haven model and the dedication of hundreds of outreach workers who prioritize dignity, trust, and compassion every step of the way, we were able to help more than 3,500 New Yorkers who were living unsheltered move into permanent homes. The ongoing expansion of Safe Havens will further reinforce our efforts to break the cycle of homelessness for New Yorkers who have been consistently failed by society at large.”
In February 2022, Mayor Adams launched the Subway Safety Plan to intensify multi-agency outreach efforts across end-of-line subway stations. As part of this plan, Mayor Adams also made unprecedented investments in a comprehensive continuum of care designed to meet the unique needs of New Yorkers experiencing unsheltered homelessness, including individuals experiencing mental health and substance use challenges in the subway system. Since the start of the Subway Safety Plan, more than 8,600 New Yorkers have been connected to shelter, with over 1,000 now in permanent, affordable housing. These efforts complement the city’s 24X7 above-ground HOME-STAT outreach efforts — one of the most comprehensive outreach programs in the nation — which have also resulted in vital connections to shelter services for thousands of New Yorkers experiencing unsheltered homelessness across city streets, parks, and other public places. As of today, DSS has approximately 400 outreach staff canvassing the five boroughs around-the-clock; this includes a reliable network of contracted outreach workers from not-for-profit human services providers with extensive experience addressing unsheltered homelessness.
The city continues to build on the aggressive expansion of Safe Haven and stabilization beds, which have proven effective in facilitating connections to permanent housing for vulnerable New Yorkers who tend to cycle in and out of the traditional shelter system. The city has opened nearly 1,400 new Safe Haven and stabilization beds during this administration, bringing the overall capacity to 4,000 low-barrier beds as of today. Last year alone, nearly 1,200 New Yorkers experiencing unsheltered homelessness were placed in permanent housing from low-barrier beds reflecting a 19 percent increase year over year. More than 3,500 unsheltered New Yorkers have been able to transition from living on the streets and subways to permanent housing since the start of this administration. Additionally, since January 2022, over 14,000 individuals have checked into a low-barrier shelter bed thanks to the Adams administration’s efforts.
Building on all these efforts, earlier this year in his State of the City address, Mayor Adams announced a historic $650 million plan to tackle homelessness, which includes a dramatic expansion of the city’s capacity to serve people experiencing unsheltered homelessness by adding 900 Safe Haven shelter beds and 100 Runaway and Homeless Youth Beds — offering intensive wraparound services and specialized resources that drastically increase success rates. Additionally, under a new, innovative model, “Bridge to Home,” that is also part of this $650 million plan, NYC Health + Hospitals will offer supportive, home-like environments to patients with serious mental illness who are ready for discharge from the hospital but do not yet have a place to go. By offering patients intensive treatment and comprehensive support, Bridge to Home aims to keep patients on a path toward sustained success, reducing unnecessary emergency room visits and inpatient hospitalizations, decreasing street homelessness and reliance on shelters, and lowering interactions with the criminal justice system.
Building on his efforts to connect homeless New Yorkers to permanent housing, Mayor Adams recently announced that the city broke multiple records for producing and connecting New Yorkers to affordable homes in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, delivering the affordable housing that New Yorkers need and reinforcing the Adams administration’s position as the most pro-housing administration in city history. Among the numerous records broken in the most recent fiscal year were producing the most affordable housing units for formerly homeless households, placing the most homeless New Yorkers into permanent affordable housing, and connecting the most New Yorkers to affordable homes through the city’s affordable housing lottery — all three records broken three fiscal years in a row.
Between historic efforts by the Adams administration to finance the creation and preservation of housing, speed up the production of new homes, rehabilitate public housing, pass landmark rezoning initiatives, successful advocacy in Albany to pass a historic housing deal last year, initiatives to build new homes on city-owned sites, and much more, the Adams administration has created, preserved, or planned for approximately 426,800 homes for New Yorkers — including at least 250,000 affordable homes — over the next 15 years.
August 11, 2025 NEW YORK
Sources: NYC.gov/office-of-the-mayor BigNY.com New York news
