Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Launches Homeless Assistance Fund With NYC’s Business Community

July 26, 2022

Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, Health and Human Services: Good morning everyone. My name is Anne Williams-Isom, and I’m the deputy mayor for health and human services. We are here this morning to talk about another layer of support that we have for our brothers and sisters in New York City who are experiencing homelessness. I’ll now turn the mic over to the mayor to discuss the details of this announcement. Thank you.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you so much, deputy mayor. And I want to thank Kathy Wylde and the Partnership for just hearing the call. As we stated last week with Norman Siegel and the arm of volunteers, this initiative is something that Kathy Wylde and these business leaders decided that this problem is all of our problems. And I think far too often we failed to recognize the foundational role our business community continues to play in our city and their level of benevolence is not always something that they talk about. They just do the work every day. 61 businesses came together to raise approximately $8 million for this important partnership with Breaking Ground. We can achieve great success when all New Yorkers come together, and that is what we’re seeing now. And when you think of this initiative, the Homeless Assistance Fund, a public-private partnership to tackle street homelessness.

Mayor Adams: We see it every day. This administration has made it clear we are not going to just walk past our brothers and sisters who have fallen on hard times, our fellow New Yorkers. And we want to continue to meet homeless people where they are and build that trust and the partnership that’s needed to move them into permanent housing. This initiative will offer them the assistance they urgently need. And I said this then at the beginning of my administration, and I’ll say it now, there is no dignity to living on the street and we can do more and we must do more and today we are doing more. We’re going to restore the sense of confidence and trust in the city. And it is crucial for a long term recovery plan, particularly those who are dealing with substance abuse and those who are dealing with mental health illnesses.

Mayor Adams: We cannot do it alone. We need partners. I continue to say that. And today we are seeing those partners. And heroes are not only wearing blue capes, they’re wearing blue suits, blue dresses, and they are not sitting back and allowing this crisis to take place. We need the support of our business partners and that’s what the partnership is about, and I’m proud to say that these 61 businesses stood up and I’m sure more are going to stand up. New Yorkers want to help. This money will be put to good use. We will be expanding Breaking Ground’s Connect 2 Care. They are doing it right. It is a great product that has proven to be successful. Their model is delivering services to those who need it the most. Breaking Ground teams will help homeless New Yorkers find housing, access the benefits, and take care of immediate needs like clothing, food, and medicine.

Mayor Adams: I’ve watched this team of Breaking Ground field personnel interact with homeless and really have the benefits of knowing how to bring them inside. And the most important aspect of this, they’re able to go into private locations that we are not allowed to go into with the real partnership that we are creating. This will just deescalate disorderly behavior. They connect the homeless New Yorkers to detox, substance use or mental health services if they need them.

Mayor Adams: Finding a solution to our homeless crisis is clearly one of our top priorities. Not only does it deal with the sense of disorder in our city, but it also leaves far too many people behind so that they can’t get the services they need. And that is why we are trying different approaches. You know and I know that the approaches we have carried out in the past, they have been failing. And if you continue to do the same things the same way, you’re going to get the same results. This generational crisis has been ignored for too long. We refuse to ignore it and we are going to meet it head on.

Mayor Adams: And so Kathy has done so much in this city as the lead of the partnership, and I just want to thank her for spearheading this endeavor. And when you see some of the companies behind us, they are our major employers. They ensure our tax base remains steady and strong. The countless number of men and women who are here today, they are the background and the foundation of what allows this city to be New York City, and all the businesses who are participating, we commend them. We’re saying this loudly and clearly, this is our city. This is your city. What happens in this city is going to happen to all of us. And that is a message, a signal we’re going to carry out throughout this administration.

Mayor Adams: There is no war between this administration and the business community. We’re in this together, and together we are going to solve some of these major problems that we are facing. And so I want to personally thank all of the businesses who are behind us, as well as the businesses who are not here, for stepping up and stating solving the problems of the city as we navigate our way throughout COVID, the economic crisis, public safety, homelessness, improving the city that we live in. It is something that we are coming together to accomplish. And I know there are those who would rather us stay departed and not unite together. That is not going to happen. New York City is invincible, and we are invincible because of the people who are in this city. And that invincibility is something that’s going to cascade throughout this entire country. The problems we are facing here are national problems, but the solutions are coming from this city. And I want to thank everyone who’s participating in this endeavor. Deputy mayor?

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Thank you so much, mayor. And now I’d like to bring in Kathy Wylde. I would say a good friend of the administration, but more importantly, a great New Yorker who really is spearheading this effort and brought us all together. So, Kathy, the president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, please come up and say a few words.

Kathy Wylde, President and CEO, Partnership for New York City: Thank you, deputy mayor, and thank you mayor for bringing us together, which is what this city needs. And you have been outreaching to the business community, and we really appreciate that, and we’re happy today that so many companies have been willing to step up. This is in response to a survey of employees, more than 10,000 employees, who responded when they were asked, “What’s your greatest concern about the direction of the city and conditions in the city?” They said it was the homelessness, mental health situation, and we’ve got to be part of solving that problem, stepping up with support for the city and state’s efforts in that regard. And so we are very happy to be part of this effort today. And we’re grateful to the 61 companies represented here, all of whose names you will recognize who are major employers, that the mayor has invited their participation and help in our city’s recovery. And they are joining together today to tackle one of the most important problems. So, thanks.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Thank you so much, Kathy. Now I’d like to invite Mr. Steve Swartz to the microphone to say a few words. President and CEO at Hearst.

[…]

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Thank you. It just reminds me, everywhere we go when people say, “What more can we do?” And so giving New Yorkers the ability to step up and to partner with us is just a great opportunity. So thank you so much, Steven. Now, I’d like to invite to the microphone Jose Tavares, vice president at Bank of America. Jose?

[…]

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Thank you so much, Jose. Now, someone who doesn’t need an introduction, someone who is a pioneer in this field and has a long history with the organization and in commitment to this community, I’d like to bring Ms. Brenda Rosen, president and CEO of Breaking Ground to come and say a few words.

Brenda Rosen, President and CEO, Breaking Ground: I want to start by thanking Mayor Adams and Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom for the continued support and for embracing this public-private partnership to reach more unsheltered people in this city. Thanks especially to Kathy Wylde from the Partnership for New York City and the many member companies who have generously contributed to the Homeless Assistance Fund. And thank you to Breaking Ground’s board for being so supportive of our work to aid individuals across the boroughs who suffer from the tragedy of homelessness

Rosen: Over the past few years, Breaking Ground has piloted its Connect 2 Care program with some of New York’s prominent businesses, including Macy’s, MetLife Foundation, Starbucks and Vornado to bring dedicated outreach teams into targeted privately owned areas within the city like retail stores and cafes, which are historically hard to reach areas. Due to our program’s great success and the growing interest from leading companies who also want to see this level of care built out across the city, we’ll be able to accelerate connections to services and housing opportunities for those hard to reach individuals experiencing homelessness in our city today. Thank you. And now I’m passing it back to Mayor Adams.

Mayor Adams: You stand right here next to me, because they are going to ask me some questions.

Rosen: Got it.

Mayor Adams: You know this New York media. Yes. Over to a few questions.

Question: Mr. Mayor, how many people is the city going to be able to help with those $8 million? And who’s going to manage the money?

Mayor Adams: Breaking Ground could answer that question. The number of people, this is not a fixed number. This is a complex set of scenarios that take place on the street. Breaking Ground has a proven track record of interacting with people in coffee shops, vestibules, vestibules of banks and other locations. And so it is about how they do the job that they do so well, but you want to respond to that?

Rosen: Sure. So, this will allow us to have nearly a hundred more outreach workers in high density areas and Midtown Manhattan, Lower Manhattan, and in Downtown Brooklyn. And it will allow us to collaborate and coordinate with our city funded outreach teams to provide additional levels of service and to reach people that we ordinarily wouldn’t reach. We’ve done that through our piloted Connect 2 Care programs over the past few years. And we’ve been able to identify and engage with and house folks that have slipped through the cracks. And today we are being given the opportunity to help hundreds more folks that are needing our help and especially those that have otherwise not received services because of where they’ve been located.

Question: Mayor Adams, you were asked a version of this question last week at the other announcement about homeless outreach. The city’s Department of Homeless Services and DSS budget is around $2 billion. And I know you like to take a look at the agency budgets to see where the money’s getting spent. What does it say, I guess, to that budget — for the very large homeless services budget  that requires some $8 million dollars from private businesses — if there’s not the appropriate fund within that $2 billion dollars to address the needs of particularly the street homeless population? Is there an issue with the Department of Homeless Services and DSS’ budget overall that you require a donation from private businesses?

Mayor Adams: We are constantly looking at the budget. I stated I am not pleased with many things in the homeless budget and how we have to do things differently. As we even looked at the many housing units that we had unfilled. We inherited over 2,000 when I took office, we were able to expeditiously fill 1,000 of those and our numbers are probably higher now.

Mayor Adams: But we are going to examine the budget, see where we are spending our dollars. And the goal is how to get people into permanent housing, particularly housing where our street homelessness to get the wraparound services they deserve. And that’s the complexity. But let’s be clear. The housing crisis that we are having, crisis, is going to make sure that we’re spending the dollars correctly and we get the help and the partnerships that we are receiving now. Because this is a crisis that was only aggravated by the influx of asylum seekers. And so we need to make sure every dollar is being spent appropriately. I’m not 100% satisfied yet until I see where the dollars are going and continue to do a forensic audit on those dollars. Because taxpayers deserve better and we are going to give them better.

Question: Yes. This question is for Brenda, where do you place the homeless? And do you put them in city locations or do you have your own locations that you run?

Rosen: Sure. So Breaking Ground has over 4,000 units of permanent supportive housing. As the mayor noted, that’s permanent housing with wraparound supports for those with mental health issues and other chronic conditions. We also have over 500 units of transitional Safe Haven and stabilization housing, where we bring folks from the streets directly into those units. We have a pipeline, development pipeline on both the transitional end and the permanent end. And of course, if folks want to go into shelter, we transport and help them access city shelter.

Question: Mr. Mayor, you said today and I’m paraphrasing, [inaudible] ignoring the homeless crisis. [Inaudible]. Who were you talking about exactly? Who is ignoring [inaudible] de Blasio and Bloomberg?

Mayor Adams: I think the city… We’ve normalized people sleeping on the streets in our subway system, in our vestibules, in our bank, ATM locations. We’ve normalized it. And the first month in office, when I went out and visited people in encampments, talked to people in tents and realizing some people were dealing with mental health issues. Some people were just down on their luck and I refused to just ignore it.

Mayor Adams: And I refused to just walk past. So we can’t just point to previous mayors of a 40 year problem. We’ve normalized this in our city and it is inhumane. And so when we decided to do the initiative of removing encampments off our subway system, first week, 22 people decided to take us up on our offer. Now to date, we are at up to 1,800 people, because we didn’t ignore the problem.

Mayor Adams: We’re doing the same thing on our streets. And so when I say we’ve ignored the problem, we’ve ignored the problem as New Yorkers. Everyone wants to point to one administration. But as New Yorkers, we’ve normalized our fellow brothers and sisters sleeping on the street. And I’m not going to normalize that.

Question: One follow up [inaudible] question. You talked about the [inaudible] homeless budget and DSS. In this last budget process, what kind of examination did your administration do of it? Was there… You mentioned a forensic audit. Is that something that happened this last budget process or what kind of examination happened this last go round?

Mayor Adams: Well, this is a, like I said, probably a 40 year crisis, and I know it’s really hard for people to actually believe that I was not here for seven years. I was here for seven months. So it’s going to take us time to go into where these dollars are going, to make sure those dollars are carrying out the mission of this administration. And that is what we doing.

Mayor Adams: We’re looking at how are we spending our money? How are we spending our dollars? Are we getting the product that we deserve? I’m the CEO of NYC. And just as these corporations must make sure every dollar they bring in is producing a good product, I have to produce a good product for this city. And so we are in the process of looking at how we’re spending our money and are the taxpayers of this city receiving the product that they deserve. I don’t believe we are. And we are going to continue to dig into every dollar and see what is our mission and are we fulfilling that mission?

Question: This is a question for Brenda. How long or how many vacancies do you have in the permanent housing and also in safe haven? And also how long do individuals stay in permanent housing typically [inaudible]?

Rosen: Sure. So I don’t know if I’ll take those in the exact order in which you asked. With respect to the permanent supportive housing, the turnover is low. Permanent supportive housing is rent stabilized housing. And when people come in and receive the services that they need to become and remain stable, they tend to stay in those units and they can. They have leases.

Rosen: As people move out or otherwise leave for other reasons, we do backfill those units with homeless folks with special needs, mental health issues, substance use disorder and other chronic conditions. So we fill those units as quickly as possible. There’s no shortage of people waiting to get into Breaking Ground housing. We move folks from transitional safe haven housing into our permanent units to then free up transitional units to bring in more folks from the street. Does that answer your…

Question: Do you have an idea of the vacancy rate right now?

Rosen: The vacancy rate is probably less than 5%. That is why we are always looking for new sites and have a robust development pipeline. We are also bringing on more transitional safe haven beds.

Question: And then, another one for the mayor. Is this a way of… in your last speech you were talking about the stress on the shelter system, especially the influx of asylum seekers. Is this also a way to assist with that tension on the system? And also, what is the current update for the asylum seekers that are now in the shelter system?

Mayor Adams: We have to continuously find new locations for emergency housing because we are required by law to do so, and we are continuously finding new locations. And so what we’re going to be doing, we’re going to reach out to all of our electeds who are advocating on behalf of our brothers and sisters who are homeless and we are going to ask them to assist us in finding locations within their districts so that we can actually find locations to place our homeless brothers and sisters and those who are seeking refuge here in our city. Everyone must be in the game. You cannot say, “Let’s house our homeless, let’s get them off the street, but just don’t put them on my street.” You can’t do that.

Question: Do you have an update on the number of people that are here? I know last week, it was 3,000.

Mayor Adams: My briefing this morning stated that we have a little over 3,000. We get an average of 100 per day. Those are large numbers. And again, not only are we dealing with housing, but we have to deal with food. We have to deal with basic necessities, everything from baby supplies. There’s so much more that goes into this. Translation services. There’s a lot that goes into dealing with someone that is here in the city for the first time. Thank you, everyone. I’m going to spare you the off-topics. [Laughter].

[Crosstalk]

Question: So I’d like to ask you about an incident that involved two transit cops who were attacked when they tried to stop two 16 year olds who were jumping the turnstile. I wonder why, if you think that behavior is acceptable… The bigger question has to do with the Raise the Age laws. You, as part of your criminal justice plan, had asked the legislature to change the raise the age laws so that instead of 18, people at age 16 could be charged in court. In this case, when they went to family court, they were released. One of the people had a gun charge. So how is this acceptable — a person with a gun charge who attacks an NYPD transit cop is allowed to walk the streets? And does it say something about our laws that they have to be changed?

Mayor Adams: Well, there’s one aspect of that that was missing. July 20 of 2022, just a few days ago, he’s arrested for robbery. Catch, release, repeat. Catch, release, repeat. This person was arrested for robbery a few days ago, now he’s back, decides he’s not going to pay his fare. The transit officer communicated with him. He decided that he was not going to leave this system. The transit officer could have arrested him for not paying his fare. He didn’t do that. Told him to leave this system and response, we saw in the video what happened. Just a total disregard for public safety. Not only for public safety for that transit officer, but also for the person he robbed.

Mayor Adams: This is what we are saying about what is happening in our criminal justice system. So yes, we are saying let’s reexamine the bail laws in the area of violent offenders. Violent offenders. Robbery is a violent crime. So as soon as we catch them, the system releases them and they repeat the action. When I say we’re the laughing stock of the country, this is what I’m talking about. How do we keep our city safe when the other parts of the criminal justice system, they have abandoned our public safety apparatus? And we need to look at violent offenders, and this is a clear case of that.

Question: Don’t you find it sort of ironic that you were on the same page as Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor, in calling on the legislature to change the bail laws? And also, I think you must be also talking about the Raise the Age law. Do you think that also should be reduced to 16? And you’re on the same page as Zeldin.

Mayor Adams: Well, no, I don’t think it’s ironic I’m on the same page as Zeldin. I think it’s ironic that he finally caught up to Kathy Hochul and I. Governor Hochul made it clear that she was not willing to pass the budget without dealing with some of the issues around criminal justice deform. I don’t call it reform. And so I believe that he has finally raised his voice for something that Governor Hochul and I have been talking about for far too long.

Mayor Adams: But also, let’s be clear. It was his campaign manager or staffer who released the person on a lesser charge that attacked him. The federal government had to step in. So in one breath, he can’t talk about lax actions from the criminal justice system and in another breath, the person that represents him is releasing the person that attacked him on stage. Consistency in message must match the consistency in actions.

Question: You have a situation where the legislature, despite your pleas, despite the many times that you went to Albany to talk to the legislature, even the Zoom conversations you have with members of the legislature asking for change, asking the governor for change, asking the legislature for change, fighting with Latrice Walker about it. How come this hasn’t happened, and what are you going to do to push it forward now? 

Mayor Adams: Well, I don’t think that it’s only I am asking for change. I think the people of this city, they have been asking for change. And I’m on the side of the good people of this city. And I’m going to continue to say that. I’m going to stay on the side of the good people of the city. And so we’re going to continue our pursuit. We’re not going to surrender this issue. We are going to have a public facing approach to let the public know who are the repeated offenders, how these laws are hurting our public safety battle. The more we inform the public, the public’s going to make the right decision of who they want in Albany. Now, thanks a lot. That was his campaign co-chair that failed to give him the appropriate charges, his campaign co-chairs.

Question: Mr. Mayor, in terms of following what Marcia was saying, in terms of the state legislature, do you think that the situation is so bad with this catch, release, repeat pattern that we see over and over again, and some of the most horrific crimes we’re witnessing, warrants a special emergency session of the state legislature to deal with it?

Mayor Adams: I hope they would do that. I hope that just as we had a special call to return to Albany to deal with the ruling on right to carry, I believe that Albany should consider coming and revisiting some of the violence we’re seeing are repeated offenders. We need to be clear on that. We’re not talking about someone that steals an apple. We’re talking about someone that has repeatedly used violence in our city. Robberies, grand larcenies, burglaries, shootings, carrying a gun. This group of people are repeated offenders in our community. They’re hurting our public safety.

Question: And then in terms of the teenagers, there was a 17 year old who was arrested and charged in the shooting of a 14 year old in East Harlem. If you could do anything with these teens, you’ve done increased programs, jobs this summer, restored some of the summer streets programs. What else would you do to really try to turn it around with the youth?

Mayor Adams: Well, I believe what we’re doing with the crisis management teams, with our law enforcement officers. I’m a big intervention and prevention. Intervention is right now. Our Neighborhood Safety Teams is doing an amazing job of removing guns off our streets. But we have a lot of preventive programs. Saturday Night Lights, 100,000 Summer Youth Employment, our partnership with crisis management team, what probation is doing with young people. We’re zeroing in on those who are on the pathway of violence and we’re going to continue to do that. Our summer internship programs and our year-round internship programs. Zeroing in on those who are in foster care, those who are living in homeless shelters. We’re looking at the pattern of those who are committing crimes so that we could actually stop those who are committing crimes. But at the same time, we have to deal with those who are actually on the streets right now.

Question: Morning, Mr. Mayor, how are you?

Mayor Adams: Quite well. How are you?

Question: Doing well, thanks.

Mayor Adams: Good.

Question: I wanted to ask you about monkeypox. So right now, the data that’s available is on ethnic data broken down in who’s testing. So to test, you need [inaudible] to your symptomatic to get the swab to see if you have monkeypox. I wanted to know if you would press your Health Department to publish data of people who are getting vaccinated, typically preemptively. What I’m hearing is that a lot of white people are going up to Harlem and the Bronx. Richie Torres talked to me saying people who wouldn’t be caught dead in the Bronx are going up for a monkeypox vaccine. And so I can’t tell whether or not these anecdotes are data-based to see if that’s true. So I was curious if you were willing to push your Health Department to release that data, to make sure that they accurately distribute it, especially as more vaccines are coming in.

Mayor Adams: Yeah. We saw that during COVID, that people were coming from outside the zip codes and getting the COVID shots, the vaccines. And so we’ll look at that. We must first find out that if it’s going to in any way impede on privacy laws, HIPAA laws. So we are looking at it, and I had a conversation with the Department of Health and see if that’s something we should do. But we do need to analyze that data. I know we’re moving locations within those areas, and I’ll speak with Dr. Vasan to find out exactly how we’re ensuring we are giving the shots to those who live in those communities.

Question: I also had a question on monkeypox. It’s about the sexual health clinics. If you go to the website today, it says four clinics are still closed. There was one in Jamaica, Queens that was closed yesterday. The existing ones also have very limited hours. Very few have hours after work, after five. I’m wondering if the commissioner has raised this to you. Why are they closed? Does he need more staff? Do they need to hire up? Can they hire up using H + H staff, for example?

Mayor Adams: Yeah. The commissioner has done an amazing job of… As we get the vaccines in, we are getting them out the door. And I don’t believe from the briefing he gave me this morning, I don’t believe we have any more appointments, because we are just filling the appointments. So we’ll look at the staffing. He’s getting… And he knows whatever he needs to ensure that, as we get the vaccines, that we are going to get him out the door, we are going to make sure that happens. I have not heard from him in the briefing he gave me this morning that we’re dealing with a staffing issue, but I’ll revisit that with him.

Question: Mr. Mayor, going back to Albany and your call for a special session, have you talked to Governor Hochul about this or either leaders of the legislature, Andrea Stewart-Cousins or Carl Heastie?

Mayor Adams: No. I communicated with Governor Hochul the importance that both of us share around making sure that we keep dangerous people off the streets. She would make that call. I think it would be a good idea that we need to revisit while we’re still in the middle of the summer, some of the laws that we have. But it’s really the timelessness for the future. Because whatever we enact right now, how much of an impact it is going to have on those who are on the streets. But the thing judges can do right now, they can use their discretion right now. And I’m calling on them to do that. I think there are things prosecutors can do right now, and we need to expedite some of these sentences. We need to expedite us getting these cases inside our courts to take dangerous people off the streets. So I think that, while we’re waiting for changes in these laws, which is going to be an uphill battle, the things we can do right now.

Question: And when was it that you spoke to Hochul about this?

Mayor Adams: We communicated over the weekend about a series of things in public safety, were one of the things on our schedule.

Question: Did it seem like she was amenable…?

[Crosstalk]

Mayor Adams: That question was not presented to her.

Question: Yeah, back to monkeypox, sir, if I may. You praise your health commissioner. I wonder how you would gauge the federal and the state response up to now.

Mayor Adams: I think that… Listen, no matter what we do, when you’re dealing with a crisis, there’s always a moment of reflection. There’s always a moment of improvement. I believe they have been great partners. We’re dealing with a crisis. We’re dealing with, from COVID to monkeypox to the potentiality of a new polio case that came about. So there’s a series of healthcare issues that are taking place. I believe at the heart of that is our ability to collaborate and communicate.

Mayor Adams: And this White House has done just that. It has collaborated. They have communicated. When we communicated with them that 90% of the cases of monkeypox were in New York City. 90% of the cases in New York State are in New York City. And we communicated with the disproportionate number that we’re receiving, they stepped up. They responded. They increased the numbers of vaccines that we received. And so I think the partnership and the collaboration and the communication has been amazing. There’s always room for improvement, but I don’t have any real criticism on how they have stepped up to the plate for New York.

[…]

Question: Mr. Mayor, the NYPD’s chief of transit said there’s been a 55% increase in assaults on officers who are trying to enforce quality of life offenses. What do you attribute that to?

Mayor Adams: Everything goes in this criminal justice system that we are watching. Of anyone who saw that video of that attack on those two police officers, it has to outrage you. Those officers were assaulted by a person who was previously arrested for robberies. What is today, the 26th?

Question: Yes.

Mayor Adams: I’m in dog years now as the mayor. Six days ago. Think about that. Six days ago, he robbed an innocent New Yorker, reportedly. And he was out to assault a police officer. And so when you look at the increase on assaults for quality of life issues, it’s because it’s just this total erosion of respecting the innocent people of this city. And we’re not going to stand by and allow that to happen, and I’m sure the chief tells you that we’re continuing to enforce quality of life issues. Even with those increases, those offices are still out there enforcing quality of life issues. That person that assaulted the officer was released on ROR, they say. How do you fight that? You fight it by being persistent. And that’s what we’re doing. We’re going to continue to be on the ground and fight these laws.

[Crosstalk]

Question: To follow up, two weeks ago, I was at the crime stats news conference.

Mayor Adams: Yes, I’m listening.

Question: And I asked the police commissioner, because the recidivism rates for certain crimes, I think it was robbery, grand larceny, 25%, 25% of people arrested for that particular type of crime committed it again in 60 days.

Mayor Adams: That’s not good.

Question: So I said, “Why isn’t Carl Heastie and Andrea Stewart-Cousins here? Why won’t you invite them to your press conference and have them hear this?” Do you think that’s a good idea?

Mayor Adams: I have never heard you present an idea that was not a good idea. And I had the same conversation with the police commissioner. And as I stated, I think it was last week, we have to really start showing what this issue is. Because people have a belief that the Police Department is not making arrests and they’re not finding these dangerous people. That’s just not true. And so we are going to start showing the public how the other parts of the criminal justice system, those parts are failing us. Police are doing their job. Gun arrests are up. Many of the dangerous crimes, predatory crimes, the arrests are being made. Catch, release, repeat, and I’m not comfortable with that.

[Crosstalk]

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