Giuliani: "If someone is mentally ill, they should be dealt with as if they're mentally ill -- not allowed to sleep on the streets"

From Correspondent Deborah Feyerick

November 22, 1999
Web posted at: 11:18 p.m. EST (0418 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A week after a vagrant used a brick to batter a young woman on a New York City street, Mayor Rudy Giuliani is being hit by criticism over a citywide roundup of the homeless.

Twenty-three were arrested over the weekend, charged with disorderly conduct. Nearly 130 others were referred to homeless shelters.

The sweep comes at the same time the mayor is fighting a court battle to kick the homeless out of shelters if they refuse to work.

"He has two contradictory policies," said critic Mary Brosnahan of the Coalition for the Homeless.

"On one hand he says he's going to pick people up and arrest them if they don't come into shelters. On the other hand, he's in court right now trying to decimate the right to shelter, so these same people are going to be thrown back into the street," said Brosnahan.

Experts say roughly 30 percent of the homeless are mentally ill, but predicting who will turn violent is all but impossible.

Iris Jones spent years in and out of homeless shelters and she knows what it's like to lose control.

"I look at this man with the issue of the brick and hitting this lady, if I got out of control enough I'm capable of something like that," said Jones.

VIDEO CNN's Deborah Feyerick looks at the reasons behind the crackdown Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

Now in subsidized housing, Jones was not one of the homeless targeted in the crackdown -- Giuliani's response to the attack on Nicole Barrett on a busy midtown street.

"If someone is mentally ill, they should be dealt with as if they're mentally ill -- not allowed to sleep on the streets," said Giuliani. "If someone has a criminal problem because there is a warrant, they should be arrested."

Last week's attack on Barrett comes in the wake of two others that have unnerved New Yorkers.

In January, Kendra Webdale was decapitated after being pushed in front of a subway train by a man with a history of mental illness

Brosnahan accuses Giuliani of having contradictory policies

In April, Edgar Rivera lost both his legs after a mentally ill man pushed him onto the tracks.

A spokesman for a New York City shelter for the mentally ill said the recent incidents have created a false impression.

"There is an impression in the general public now that there's all these people in New York City who have these mental illnesses who are just waiting to get you," said Kenneth Dudek of Fountain House. "It's wrong."

New York City has proposed $12 million in new spending for mental health services.

But homeless advocates say it will be years before any of that money reaches the people its supposed to help.

For now, Nicole Barrett's attacker -- homeless or not -- remains at large, wanted by police who have posted an $11,000 reward for information leading to his capture and conviction.

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