Bridge to Home Program
Expands Into Brooklyn

NYC Health + Hospitals to Open Second Bridge to Home Facility in Brooklyn to Expand Transitional Housing Program for Unhoused New Yorkers Diagnosed with Serious Mental Illness

(New York, NY – May 27, 2026) – NYC Health + Hospitals today announced that it will expand the Bridge to Home program to Brooklyn, building on the success of the program's Manhattan site. Bridge to Home aims to break the cycle between street, shelter, and recurring hospital admission for unhoused New Yorkers diagnosed with serious mental illness (SMI) by addressing the gap between inpatient psychiatric treatment and permanent housing placement. The program offers unhoused patients with SMI a stable, home-like environment with onsite clinical services, behavioral health care, and housing application assistance to ensure they can continue their recovery while they transition to permanent housing. Earlier this month, the NYC Health + Hospitals Board of Directors approved a five-year lease to expand the program to Brooklyn. Like its Manhattan counterpart, the Bridge to Home site in Crown Heights, Brooklyn will serve up to 50 guests with 24/7 on-site services and stays of up to 12 months, until guests are connected to permanent, supportive housing. Providers from NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull will work on-site to ensure guests have access to a full spectrum of health care services, including behavioral health care, medical treatment, social services and housing navigation. The Brooklyn site is expected to welcome its first guests in early fall 2026.

The first Bridge to Home site opened in Midtown Manhattan in September 2025 and in seven months has already demonstrated positive outcomes. More than 87% of current guests attend weekly clinical visits, approximately two thirds have completed housing applications, four guests have been matched with permanent housing, and three guests have successfully transitioned into permanent supportive housing

“The core of Bridge to Home is simple: to provide our most vulnerable neighbors with the care and clinical services they need to recover,” said Mayor Mamdani. “For New Yorkers living with serious mental illness, the cycle between shelters, hospitals and the streets has become a revolving door that the City has accepted for too long. This program will help break that cycle with continuous care and a path to permanent housing.”

“Bridge to Home has already shown us what is possible when we meet patients where they are and give them the time, stability, and services they need to recover,” said NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Mitchell Katz, MD. “Opening a second location in Brooklyn makes good on our commitment to every patient who has been waiting for this opportunity, and brings us closer to the day when no eligible patient leaves our hospitals without a safe, supportive place to go.”

“The Bridge to Home program takes an important step forward in breaking the cycle of patients with severe mental illness going back and forth from the hospital to the street,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Chief Medical Officer for Clinical Services and Population Health, Ted Long, MD, MHS. “We’ve built a strong bridge between hospital care and long-term housing stability, ensuring patients stay connected to care at our site with around the clock behavioral health support from our world-class Psychiatry team. I am excited to bring this model to Brooklyn to give New Yorkers living with severe mental illness the care they deserve as we help them get into permanent housing.”

“The expansion of Bridge to Home reflects our continued commitment to supporting New Yorkers with complex behavioral health and social service needs,” said Dr. Omar Fattal, Chief Behavioral Health Officer, NYC Health + Hospitals. “Building on the success of the first site, we are proud to expand the pathway from hospitalization to housing and long-term recovery, helping fill a gap in the continuum of care. This work complements the pathway created through our Extended Care Units, which provide patients with serious mental illness up to 120 days of inpatient care to stabilize, rehabilitate, and prepare for meaningful community reintegration.”

Since the Bridge to Home location in Manhattan opened its doors in September 2025, NYC Health + Hospitals has seen sustained demand among eligible patients for whom the program is clinically appropriate. Guests must be NYC Health + Hospitals behavioral health patients, over the age of 18, have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness, experienced chronic housing instability, referred by a NYC Health + Hospitals provider, and willing to participate in the program. The Brooklyn expansion will allow the public health care system to extend support to a total of up to 100 New Yorkers in need.

Bridge to Home completes a missing link in the behavioral health continuum of care, providing the city's public hospital system an additional discharge option for individuals who no longer meet inpatient criteria but need additional support in the community. The program expands the care provided by the system's three Extended Care Units (ECUs), which offer inpatient care for patients with SMI who have been historically disconnected from health and social services for up to 120 days.

The Brooklyn site will be staffed 24/7 by NYC Health + Hospitals professionals and features a comprehensive, multidisciplinary treatment team consisting of psychiatric providers, social workers, nurses, and peer specialists. Behavioral health services will include individual and group therapy, substance use disorder treatment, and around-the-clock support. Guests will also receive access to wraparound services including case management and housing navigation to assist in securing permanent supportive housing.

The site will offer daily group activities and a range of therapeutic and recreational opportunities designed to support both privacy and community. Its location in Central Brooklyn ensures that guests remain in close proximity to NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull and the full spectrum of services within the NYC Health + Hospitals system.

The Bridge to Home model builds upon the success of Housing for Health, a program that has already housed nearly 1,500 patients, and is expected to improve engagement in outpatient care, reduce emergency room visits, and support successful transitions from homelessness to permanent housing.

“The expansion of NYC Health + Hospitals’ Bridge to Home program to Brooklyn is a powerful investment in some of our city’s most vulnerable neighbors living with serious mental illness and housing insecurity,” said Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09). “By providing transitional housing, onsite clinical care, and housing navigation services, this program creates a critical pathway to stability and recovery for up to 50 additional New Yorkers. Bridge to Home has a successful track across Manhattan, and I applaud NYC Health + Hospitals for bringing this proven model to Crown Heights – much-needed behavioral health and housing support to strengthen Brooklyn.”

“More often than not, New Yorkers leaving inpatient psychiatric care are discharged without the long-term support needed to stay healthy and housed,” said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. “Bridge to Home creates the kind of stability and continuity of care that can make recovery possible. I’m grateful to NYC Health + Hospitals for bringing this critical investment to Brooklyn and treating mental health and housing insecurity with the urgency they deserve.”

“I’m very pleased to see the Bridge to Home program expanding to another borough,” said New York State Senator Liz Krueger. “In just the few short months that the Manhattan location has been operating, it has clearly demonstrated what an important and effective model this is. Bridge to Home provides critical support and services to give individuals the time they need to recover and the resources they need to move into permanent housing and live well as part of the community.”

“The expansion of Bridge to Home into Brooklyn is an important investment in the health, stability, and dignity of some of our most vulnerable neighbors,” said New York State Assembly Member Stefani L. Zinerman. “By bringing together behavioral health services, supportive care, and pathways to permanent housing, this program recognizes that recovery requires both compassion and continuity of support. I am proud to see this critical resource coming to Brooklyn and helping more New Yorkers move toward long-term stability and move forward with hope.”

“Recovery does not end when a patient leaves the hospital, and no New Yorker should be left without support during that transition,” said New York State Assembly Jo Anne Simon, Chair of the Committee on Mental Health. “Bridge to Home is helping close that gap by providing treatment, wraparound support, and a safe path toward permanent housing. I commend NYC Health + Hospitals for expanding this innovative program with a second location in Brooklyn.”

“For too long, New Yorkers with serious mental illness have been caught in a revolving door between our hospitals, our streets, and our shelters,” said City Council Member Mercedes Narcisse, Chair of the Committee on Hospitals. “Bridge to Home addresses a real gap in care by giving people the stability and support they need to truly recover. I am glad to see this model coming to Brooklyn, and I look forward to seeing it deliver for the New Yorkers who need it most.”

“Programs like Bridge to Home are critical: too many New Yorkers living with serious mental illness are discharged from inpatient care with nowhere stable to go, making it incredibly difficult to continue treatment or maintain any kind of stability. We cannot continue responding to homelessness and mental health crises as though housing is separate and apart from healthcare,” said New York City Council Member Crystal Hudson, Chair of the Committee on General Welfare. “This program creates a real bridge between inpatient treatment and permanent housing while giving people the support and time they need to recover. I am grateful to NYC Health + Hospitals for bringing this investment to my district in Brooklyn and for continuing to build solutions that recognize the humanity and dignity of our unhoused neighbors.”

“The Bridge to Home program has worked wonders for unhoused New Yorkers living with mental illness,” said New York City Council Member Tiffany Cabán, Chair of the Committee on Mental Health and Substance Use. “Providing a stable living situation, wraparound support, and giving folks agency in their own care has enabled the vast majority of people living in the existing Bridge to Home site to not just survive but begin to thrive. This is exactly the kind of program we need to be investing in to deliver safety and health to all New Yorkers, including those living with serious mental illness.”

Source: Official Press Release Submission by NYC Health + Hospitals