This week's journey. Will the Second Avenue subway ever run all the way down to the Financial District? Madison Avenue is set to get bus lane upgrades. Mayor Mamdani named a new taxi chief — and more.
Hochul wants homeless people forced out of NYC subways. Mamdani urges a softer approach.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul are aligned on policies like expanding free child care, but have so far proven to be miles apart on addressing homelessness in the city’s subways.
During her “State of the State” speech Tuesday, Hochul announced plans to expand a state-run program called SCOUT, which deploys teams of behavioral nurses and police officers into subway stations, where they force homeless people into hospital care after a nurse determines they’re either at risk of harming themselves or others. The program currently has 10 teams, which Hochul wants to grow to 15.
During his campaign, Mamdani proposed removing police officers from homeless outreach in the subways and replacing them with “transit ambassadors” who offer “assistance with emergencies, directions, accessibility, and other transit information to riders on the platform."
Mamdani has also said he would not conduct sweeps of homeless encampments in the city.
”I look forward to examining this proposal further,” he said in Albany after Hochul’s speech. “And I look forward to working with the governor to ensure that we're meeting the mental health needs of New Yorkers across the board.”
The daylight between the governor and the mayor comes after major subway crimes fell to historic lows in 2025 — and as Mamdani considers whether to retain a separate homeless outreach program, called PATH. That program, set up by former Mayor Eric Adams, also involuntarily removes homeless people from subway stations.
Brian Stettin, the creator of the PATH program, remains on the city payroll. He’s an ardent believer in forcing homeless people into hospital care, but it’s unclear if Mamdani will keep him on as part of his administration.
“Thrilled that Gov. Hochul recognizes the great work of our SCOUT program in the NYC Subway and will today announce more funding to expand it further. The jump from 10 teams to 15 will allow us to find and deliver care to more people in psychiatric crisis.” Stettin wrote on X.
Stettin went further in a November article published in the policy journal Vital City, in which he urged Mamdani to maintain the PATH program.
“It is my fervent hope that Mayor-elect Mamdani will not take us back to the days of involuntary removal only as a ‘last resort,’” he wrote.
Stettin declined to comment on this column.
I’ve observed nurses and police remove people from the subways in ridealongs with the state and city-run outreach teams. I watched a SCOUT team put a man in handcuffs and place a “spit hood” over his head before taking him to the hospital. Last fall, I watched a PATH team handcuff a woman who’d said she wanted to kill her husband. The presence of police officers appeared to agitate the people using subway platforms as shelter. Outreach workers on the scene, however, said it would be impossible to get homeless people into care without help from police.
Critics of the programs, like Coalition for the Homeless Executive Director Dave Giffen, argue that forcing homeless people into care isn’t effective unless they end up in permanent housing.
“Simply increasing the number of SCOUT teams won't have any actual effect because the underlying problem of individuals having no homes remains unaddressed and ignored,” said Giffen. “If placement into supportive housing isn't an integral part of the approach, the revolving door between hospitals, shelters, jails, and the streets will sadly continue.”
Since the SCOUT program launched in 2024, Hochul said mentally ill homeless people have received “7,500 nights of inpatient hospital care, with virtually no law enforcement outcomes.” City officials estimate that about 2,000 people with severe mental illness live on the streets and subways across the five boroughs.
“By strengthening this proven partnership, New York will improve safety on the subway while ensuring people in crisis receive timely, appropriate care rather than being left without support,” Hochul said during her speech this week.
Mamdani’s vision for addressing homelessness in the subways may be realized through his proposed Department of Community Safety, which would deploy mental health workers to some emergency calls instead of the NYPD. A bill for the agency is pending in the City Council.
Curious Commuter
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“What are the prospects for the Second Avenue subway to be extended downtown in phase three? Will it ever happen? ”
- Erik in Manhattan
Not any time soon! The MTA is currently building the long-planned second phase of the Second Avenue subway line, which will add three new Q train stops in East Harlem.
For decades, the transit agency planned to build a third phase down to Houston Street. But that was officially put on the backburner this week, when Gov. Kathy Hochul directed the MTA to extend the Q line west — not south — on 125th Street to Broadway.
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We're also talking about...
The Second Avenue subway stations that still aren’t finished. The MTA recently put out a request for contractors to finish a laundry list of projects at Upper East Side stations that opened nearly a decade ago.
“This is the dumbest thing I ever heard.”
- Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on the idea that Cuomo rushed the opening of the new stations
Midtown bus boost. City transportation officials have announced plans to extend double bus lanes on Madison Avenue from 42nd Street south to 23rd Street by the end of the year.
Delivery workers shortchanged? City regulators have accused Uber and DoorDash of deliberately altering their app interfaces to discourage customers from tipping food delivery workers, a move they say cost employees more than $550 million over the last two years.
