Advocates urge doubling court‑involved youth mental‑health funding and broader behavioral‑health investments

Advocates, clinicians and formerly incarcerated people urged the New York City Council on March 19 to sharply increase city funding for behavioral health programs serving young people and other justice‑involved New Yorkers.

Nadia She, senior director of policy and advocacy at CASES, told the committee that more than 65% of youth in the juvenile justice system have a mental‑health challenge and asked the council to double the court‑involved youth mental‑health initiative to about $6.89 million for fiscal 2027. CASES also requested $260,000 to maintain its adolescent portable‑therapy program and money to add a supervising mental‑health clinician across youth programs, She said.

The request is part of a wider set of budget asks from service providers. Katie Muy, a policy and programs manager at a statewide supportive‑housing membership network, said the city should allocate $44 million in capital funding and $21.3 million in expense funding to preserve 325 supportive‑housing units this year, warning that impending federal cuts to operating subsidies put thousands of units at risk.

Speakers described gaps across the behavioral‑health system that they said limit the impact of investments. Crystal Welch Scott, clinical director at Getting Out Staying Out, said adding capacity through the council initiative would allow community providers to expand therapy, case management and psychiatric services tied to housing placements. She said youth programs face chronic underfunding that constrains clinical staffing and placement options.

Several witnesses called for expanded crisis‑response capacity. Sheena Bernette, managing director of advocacy for Justice for Peers Coalition, urged the council to expand BE‑HEARD teams to match call volume, add peers to teams and establish 988 as the default mental‑health crisis number while ensuring interoperability with 911 and 311. Public commenters and family members described long waits for mobile treatment and repeated hospitalizations or incarceration when community alternatives are insufficient.

The testimony included personal accounts meant to illustrate system failures. Ashley Santiago of Freedom Agenda recounted a family member with autism who spent more than two years on Rikers Island without meaningful treatment, arguing for investment in community supports rather than continued incarceration.

None of the requests was the subject of a formal motion or vote at the hearing. Witnesses submitted written testimony detailing program‑level budgets and operational recommendations and asked the council to baseline successful initiatives and add capital and operating funds in the FY27 budget.

The committee did not take votes during public testimony; next procedural steps will depend on council budget negotiations and any follow‑up hearings or oversight the committees choose to schedule.