CM Narcisse on Bridge to Home program expansion and outcomes

Follow up on bridge to home.

Funding was added to the bridge to home program in the preliminary budget, bringing the program's budget to $20.1 million in fiscal 2027.

This additional funding covers a new site for a total of three sites.

During the preliminary budget hearing, you stated that one bridge to home site is operational and located in Manhattan.

Have the locations for the other two sites been chosen yet?

And is there a timeline for the opening of the two last sites?

I just want to take a minute to invite everybody.

I know you've been there, but if you have not been to Bridge to Home, I mean, I think in my 25-year public health career, I don't know that I'm prouder of anything more than this Bridge to Home because

I always felt that sending people out of the acute care psychiatric hospital who were homeless made absolutely no sense.

And that all of the good work that the nurses and the doctors had done during that period of time to stabilize the person would all be lost when two days later their medicines would be lost and they'd be in the subway.

And so we created this program.

It's volunteer, but it's a good deal for the people.

So the participants have been very willing.

We've had very high retention rates.

Very few people have left the existing one in Manhattan.

And we've now already placed four people in permanent supportive housing, which was another part of the idea that, yes, we all are in favor of supportive housing, but you cannot actually go from the psychiatric

ward.

To supportive housing.

There are all these steps.

You have to find an apartment, you have to sign a lease, you have to get furniture, there has to be a first month, and you have to be ready to live in that environment on your own.

But we're doing injectables.

As a nurse chair, you would appreciate we're giving people monthly injections so that they keep their mental health.

We've seen tremendous improvement in people's abilities to have a positive life outlook.

And so...

Oh, with that, the city has generously agreed.

The second one will be in Brooklyn and will be opened in September.

And the third one, I don't, it will, do you know if it's Queens or Bronx?

Because I know we're going to do in each borough.

Yes, I'm not sure if we know exactly yet.

I think we haven't yet chosen whether, the idea is that there'll be one in each borough, but I'm not sure whether number three is going to be Queens or Bronx.

It'll probably depend on finding the right site.

We need another positive thing that I'd say for all of us who've lived through this.

The neighbors, they love us.

You don't get a single, you haven't heard a single complaint.

They actually have pointed out how the neighborhood is better.

We took down something that people didn't like that was right in front of the building.

But the key thing is it's 24-hour staffing.

So you don't have people sort of hanging out on the outside, the kinds of things that are upsetting neighbors.

So it's been incredibly smooth.

I mean, normally when we have a program, I get email complaints, you know, noise or zero.

Zero complaints about the Bridge to Home, and I think it's directly related to the fact that there's 24-hour staffing at the program.

And we are talking to our sister agency, DSS, THS, about are there other shelters for the mentally ill that we could increase the clinical level?

of services.

If we do that, it does make the shelter more expensive, right?

You can't provide nursing without some added expense.

But I think it might actually save the city money because people revolve through these shelters without actually getting better.

And it could be that if we would provide enough structure, the people don't need a hospital.

But they need something more than a case manager seeing them once a month.

They need some structure, they need some activities, they need some nursing, they need someone to hold on to the medicines so they're not lost.

People can look remarkably different after three months of good nutrition, positive socialization, and medications.

People who you would have thought, oh, this person could never go to supportive housing.

You give them three months of those things, they look completely different.

But they don't look different after two weeks in the hospital.

Two weeks in a hospital gets you from psychosis to not psychosis.

I'm sorry.

I am so sold to that.

You know that.

I love it.

And one of the things, we said boroughs, you know.

We have five boroughs, but I'm hearing three.

So when is the plan to expand?

Well, this is, we hope that the city will continue to be generous and we will continue to have them.

Are we having the conversation?

Because you sold me in this, the minute I walked in, you know.

I'm

100% in.

So are we going to continue?

We think that there is tremendous support for us to do this.

Thank you.

I'll advocate with you.

Thank you.