Gov. Hochul said Monday that Jordan Neely’s death in Manhattan a week ago offered a “wake-up call” to government officials on the urgency of the mental health crisis gripping New York and the nation.
Hochul said the fate of the homeless 30-year-old — who found himself in a Marine veteran’s deadly chokehold on an F train’s floor last Monday — underscored that people like Neely need more help.
“His death is clear evidence that we need support, we need alternatives for these individuals so they’re not relegated to that kind of life,” Hochul, a Democrat, said at a news conference in her hometown of Buffalo.
“Society is frayed right now,” the governor said. “Our people are hurting. And shame on us if we don’t step up and say, no, we’re here to help.”
The governor did not lay out specific new mental health investments in the wake of Neely’s attention-grabbing death, though she highlighted mental health investments she secured this spring in the state’s budget.
The budget, which passed the Legislature last week, set aside $1 billion to boost mental health services in the state.
The budget provides for an expansion in the state’s supportive residential unit capacity and inpatient and outpatient services, according to the governor’s office. Among the commitments are 500 residential units with services for people at the highest risk of homelessness.
Hochul’s office has billed the mental health investments at the state’s largest since the 1970s.
They come as many New Yorkers struggle to recover from the challenges and isolation of the COVID pandemic, and with New York City grappling with historic levels of homelessness inflamed by a wave of migrants from Central and South America.
The governor said the state’s mental health crisis “has hit too many New Yorkers — it is too painful.”
“The surgeon general is now giving advice on how to feel less lonely,” Hochul said. “Usually, the surgeon general is saying: Don’t smoke, get vaccinated, get your flu shots.”
“This is clearly symbolic of the fact that this is a national crisis,” the governor added.
This year, the state will triple its amount of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, which offer 24/7 mental health services, Hochul said.
Neely’s death at the hands of the Marine veteran, Daniel Penny, has set off protests and explosive debates. Penny, 24, has not been charged with a crime in the caught-on-video killing.
Neely, a Michael Jackson impersonator who spiraled after the 2007 killing of his mother, had cycled through the state’s mental health and criminal justice system before his death.
He had been behaving erratically on the F train before his struggle with Penny. The exact details of the moments before Neely was restrained have proved elusive.
Hochul drew criticism for an initially restrained reaction to the death; she told reporters last Wednesday that “there’s consequences for behavior.”
The governor appeared to recalibrate a day later, describing the incident as “horrific” and saying that Neely’s family “deserves justice.”
“It became very clear that he was not going to cause harm to these other people,” Hochul said. “No one has the right to take the life of another person.”