LETTER: Almost 50 Orgs Write to Mayor Mamdani’s New Office of Community Safety
- JC Team
- 7 hours ago
- 5 min read
Dear Mayor Mamdani,
We, the undersigned, 47 organizations, write to share feedback, concerns and recommendations as you continue to develop the Office of Community Safety (OCS), move towards its expansion into a full Department of Community Safety (DCS), and further shape your administration’s approach to addressing the interconnected issues of homelessness, substance use and unmet mental health needs in ways that increase access to care and improve safety for all.
For far too long, the City’s approach to these critical public health issues has been characterized by criminalization and police intervention – an ineffective, costly and harmful approach that often results in unnecessary violence and worsening outcomes for the very people who need care, support and a vast array of social services, including housing. New York’s most vulnerable communities, including Black, brown and immigrant communities bear the brunt of this harm and would greatly benefit from a different approach. The launch of the Office of Community Safety, and stated intention to expand it to a full department, presents a meaningful opportunity to chart a different, holistic path forward, one rooted in care, prevention and meeting the needs of the most vulnerable New Yorkers.
To realize this, the development of OCS and its expansion into DCS must be undertaken intentionally and in partnership with organizations like ours — groups that are led by and serve New Yorkers directly impacted by the current system. This includes people who have experienced mental health or substance use crises, homelessness, and family members whose loved ones were harmed or killed during police responses to crises and perceived crises. The long-term goal must be for the City to develop a cohesive, health- and care-first response to these issues so that they can be effectively addressed. This effort must be paired with a clear commitment to reduce—and ultimately end—the criminalization of people who are unhoused, live with substance use, or are navigating mental health concerns, otherwise it will not succeed.
We highlight below several key principles and priorities that must guide the City’s approach to acute situations involving homelessness, substance use, and mental health:
1. Build a robust system of crisis response teams with leadership from communities, service providers and experts
The City should work with community organizations and crisis response experts who have successfully built non-police response systems in other municipalities to develop a model rooted in established best practices. The current model, BHEARD, does not follow proven best practices, manages only a fraction of mental health calls citywide, overrelies on traumatizing involuntary hospitalizations, remains too reliant on police infrastructure and policy, and has demonstrably failed to meaningfully reduce police involvement in mental health crises.
Crisis response should:
Be culturally competent. The program should involve peers and people with lived experience throughout the process from program creation, execution, evaluation and staffing
Invest in proven, evidence- and health-based models like Housing First
Prioritize voluntary, non-coercive engagement, de-escalation, and a harm reduction approach
Connect individuals to suitable long-term, wraparound care—including housing, healthcare, and case management—not just immediate stabilization
Operate within a coordinated, citywide system with consistent standards and resources
Not include co-response with the NYPD
2. Establish authority to drive accountability and alignment, including meaningful authority over the NYPD
The full Department of Community Safety should be built out as a coordinating and oversight body with real authority to drive accountability and alignment across city agencies. This includes having the authority to set and enforce limits on the NYPD with respect to crisis response, require participation in interagency coordination, and ensure compliance with new protocols. As currently structured, the Executive Order does not grant OCS sufficient authority to fulfill this role.
3. Align broader policies to prioritize (implement) effective interventions, while ending ineffective criminalization approaches
The success of OCS/DCS depends on broader policy alignment across the administration. It is concerning that, in spite of campaign promises, your administration has not halted Adams-era criminalization efforts, including: sweeps of homeless encampments, arrest surges on low-level drugs charges and continued aggressive broken windows enforcement by the NYPD through expansion into non-criminal, non-emergency complaints from 311. These tactics have failed to yield increased public safety and must be ended in favor of care-based approaches that take us out of the cycle of ineffective, violent interventions.
4. Transform call triage and dispatch systems
A truly effective crisis response system requires significant changes to how calls for support are classified and routed. The City must redesign 911 and 311 triage and dispatch systems to incorporate mental health expertise, including new call coding, improved assessment tools, interoperability and specialized training for dispatchers. Over time, crisis response infrastructure related to mental health, homelessness and drug use should be separated from NYPD control.
5. Invest in care, prevention, and community-based support.
This includes significantly scaling up proven services such as Intensive Mobile Treatment (IMT) teams, IMT step down, crisis stabilization centers, respite centers, and community-based behavioral health services as well as expanding access to low-barrier housing. A critical expansion of a social services workforce will also be required.
These recommendations are informed by the expertise of our organizations’ members and participants, who are directly impacted by the City’s failed approach to addressing housing, mental health and substance use concerns and by our decades of experience serving New Yorkers. Your acknowledgement that the status quo approach is untenable gives us hope that real change is possible. For too long these issues have been considered by politicians to be intractable but we know – and nearly 200 cities around the country know – that solutions exist and that with the appropriate political will we can develop an effective response to reduce and eliminate public suffering. Doing so successfully will provide a vision for governance that can solve what is really a nationwide humanitarian and political crisis. We look forward to collaborating with your administration to implement these principles and to ensure meaningful community leadership as this process moves forward.
Signed:
The Ali Forney Center
Alliance for Quality Education
Allan Feliz Foundation
Amadou Diallo Foundation
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Beldock Levine & Hoffman
Brandworkers
Brooklyn Defender Services
Campaign Zero
Center for Community Alternatives
Center for Constitutional Rights
The Circle Keepers
Citizen Action of New York
Coalition for the Homeless
Community Connections For Youth, Inc
Drug Policy Alliance
DRUM
Equality for Flatbush
Families and Friends of the Wrongfully Convicted
Freedom Agenda
Fountain House
The Gathering for Justice
Gender Liberation Movement
Housing Works
Immigrant Defense Project
Justice Committee
Jews for Racial & Economic Justice
Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club
Justice and Beyond
Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn
LatinoJustice PRLDEF
Legal Action Center
Long Island Social Justice Action Network (LISJAN)
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
Muslim Community Network (MCN)
Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem
New Hour for Women and Children
New York Communities for Change
New York Immigration Coalition
NYCLU
Rise Up for Ramarley
Safety Net Project at the Urban Justice Center
St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Harlem
SURJ NYC
VOCAL-NY
Youth Represent
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