Bridge to Home
A Pathway from Hospital Discharge to Housing for New Yorkers with Serious Mental Illness
Nearly half of NYC Health + Hospitals behavioral health patients experience homelessness. On average, unhoused patients visit the emergency room three times more often, are more likely to have repeated hospital admissions, and have longer hospital stays than patients who are housed. Although inpatient psychiatric treatment can stabilize patients during a crisis, many unhoused patients struggle to maintain that progress after discharge. Without stable housing and ongoing support, they often become disconnected from care and face significant barriers to securing permanent supportive housing and other essential services, increasing the risk of relapse, repeated hospitalizations, and continued housing instability.
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To address this critical gap in the continuum of care, NYC Health + Hospitals launched Bridge to Home, an innovative care model that provides unhoused New Yorkers living with serious mental illness (SMI) the treatment, stability, and support needed to successfully transition to permanent supportive housing. Bridge to Home provides a home-like setting with 24/7 staffing, where guests receive comprehensive psychiatric care, substance use treatment, social services, case management, and supportive housing application assistance. Guests can stay for up to 12 months, allowing them to maintain clinical stability while working toward securing permanent housing.
A key feature of Bridge to Home is its integration within the NYC Health + Hospitals system, with program sites located near hospitals to ensure seamless access to a full range of medical and behavioral health services. The first Bridge to Home site opened in September 2025 in Midtown Manhattan and is in close proximity to Bellevue Hospital. Building on its success, NYC Health + Hospitals announced a second site in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, which is expected to open in early fall 2026 and is in close proximity to Woodhull Hospital.
Bridge to Home completes a missing link in the behavioral health continuum of care by offering an additional discharge option for patients who no longer require inpatient treatment but need ongoing support before transitioning to independent living. The program builds on NYC Health + Hospitals’ broader continuum of services for patients experiencing homelessness, including the Housing for Health program.
By providing stable transitional housing and comprehensive support services, Bridge to Home is expected to reduce reliance on emergency care and inpatient hospitalization, improve long-term housing stability, and sets patients on a path to lasting recuperation and wellness.
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest provider of behavioral health care services in New York City, delivering almost 60% of all behavioral health services citywide and serving over 82,000 patients annually across emergency, inpatient, and outpatient settings. As the city’s public health care safety-net system, NYC Health + Hospitals is proud to be the city’s most comprehensive provider of services for New Yorkers with complex needs who live at the intersection of serious mental illness, substance use disorders, homelessness, justice-system involvement, and unmet medical needs. NYC Health + Hospitals’ behavioral health continuum extends beyond traditional models of care through innovative programs and services, including Extended Care Units that provide longer-term healing environments for seriously mentally ill patients who have been historically disconnected from care; B-HEARD, the City’s health centered response to mental health calls; and the SHOW program that delivers low-barrier, street-based medical and behavioral health care to individuals experiencing homelessness.