Outreach workers tasked with building personal relationships with unhoused New Yorkers took their first steps last Thursday, Feb. 1. The program, Neighborhood Navigators, stems from a $6 million investment from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to behavioral health service provider the Bridge.
“A Neighborhood Navigator is specifically someone [who] will be out in the community, providing support and services to those that are unhoused (or) have a substance use disorder or mental health [disorder],” said program director Rocio Santos. “We’re looking to hire and have people [who] are empathetic, but also those with lived or shared experience [who] are able to ensure and provide support for those individuals.
“We’re looking for them to help them navigate, or connect them to services. Instead of just providing prospective clients with a paper, [Navigators] will help them navigate the system, [address] stigmas that may be associated with their condition, and help them reintegrate into society.”
They currently service four Manhattan neighborhoods: Chinatown/Lower East Side, Hell’s Kitchen, Washington Heights, and Central/East Harlem, scouring the subway and homeless encampments to offer hygiene kits and mental health services to unhoused New Yorkers. Results are far too soon to determine, as the program is expected to span for more than three years, but Santos says they have already developed four prospective clients as of Monday, including one in Harlem.
Several positions remain open despite the program’s rollout, including a senior Navigator role in the Harlem service area between 124th–126th Streets and Lenox/Lexington Avenues. Applicants are primarily scouted based on their lived experience and empathy, and are screened through phone and group interviews. Hard qualifications are low, with just a high school diploma requirement.
Thursday marks the first of two Navigator programs bankrolled by the Manhattan D.A., with another $3 million awarded to re-entry service provider Fortune Society to mobilize similar outreach in the criminal courts.
“There are far too many unhoused individuals struggling with significant mental health issues who need help,” said Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg by email. “Neighborhood Navigators will be out in our communities building trusting relationships with those spending significant time on the street ,with the aim of connecting them to longer-term services and resources.
“This investment is just one part of the continuum of care we are developing to ensure lasting public safety and get Manhattanites the help they need and deserve.”
New York County’s chief prosecutor recently penned an op-ed about the Navigators, pointing to an ongoing mental health crisis on Rikers Island and calling the Manhattan criminal courts “a repository for individuals who have real needs.” While a district attorney moving against criminalization seems paradoxical, Bragg believes Neighborhood Navigators are “a service New York desperately needs.”
The program arrives over a year after the city directed first responders to enforce Kendra’s Law, which greenlighted involuntary removals of unhoused New Yorkers suspected of experiencing a mental health crisis. Last year, Human Rights Watch told the AmNews that consent was key to “rights-respecting” care.
Santos believes focusing on unhoused individuals’ well-being rather than prioritizing getting them off the street is also a more effective long-term solution. “They will be more than likely and willing to cooperate because they are feeling as if their autonomy and their life belongs to them and not fixating on what we think is going to work for them,” she said. “A lot of individuals [who] are unhoused have been there for many years, and bringing them into an apartment might not be the solution. We have to work through what they want [and] give them back that opportunity to feel as if they are controlling their lives.
“We’ve encountered individuals during our canvassing and during our planning phase, [who] have been unhoused for 20–30 years and are not interested in finding a home and/or supportive housing, but are willing to talk to us.”
Referrals can be made to neighborhoodnav@thebridgeny.org
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.