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Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration on Thursday unveiled a plan to help New Yorkers suffering from mental illness and who may be a threat to hurt themselves or others. The program, dubbed NYC Safe, is also an early move to combat increasingly visible homelessness in New York City, an issue that the mayor has said is linked to a lack of adequate care for people with mental illness. (Lemire, 8/6)

New York City announced Thursday that it plans to devote $22 million annually to a new program, NYC Safe, that will "weave together law enforcement and clinical treatment" to address the needs of mentally ill residents who are prone to violence. The initiative is part of a larger mental-health agenda, outlined in a December report by the Mayor's Task Force on Mental Health and Criminal Justice, that Mayor Bill de Blasio said will receive nearly $350 million in funding over the next three years. The focal point of NYC Safe is a communication hub where Mr. de Blasio said staff members are already beginning to gather information on individuals at risk of hurting themselves or others. The city will disseminate the information to the appropriate agencies "to identify who we need to be aware of and give us a real-time picture of how and when to intervene before violence occurs," he said. (Lewis, 8/6)