Mayor Mamdani Opens New Bridge to Home Facility in Brooklyn, Expanding Path from Hospital Care to Permanent Housing
New facility will provide 50 New Yorkers with private rooms, onsite clinical and behavioral health services, and support securing permanent housing
Second Bridge to Home site expands program to serve 100 New Yorkers citywide
Sep 29, 2026
New York, NY – Today, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and NYC Health + Hospitals announced the opening of a new Bridge to Home facility in Brooklyn, expanding a program that helps New Yorkers living with serious mental illness move from hospital care into stable housing and continued treatment.
Bridge to Home program provides a critical bridge for patients who are ready to leave the public hospital system but do not have a stable place to go. Rather than sending New Yorkers from inpatient care to a shelter or the street, the program provides a home-like setting with onsite clinical and behavioral health services, housing application assistance and support throughout the transition to permanent housing.
“Recovery should not end at the hospital doors, and no New Yorker should have to choose between getting the care they need and having a safe place to call home,” said Mayor Mamdani. “By bringing this program to Brooklyn, we are giving more New Yorkers the stability, treatment and support they need to recover and move into permanent homes with dignity.”
“The Bridge to Home program brings together two fundamental commitments of this administration: ensuring New Yorkers can access high-quality mental healthcare and that every New Yorker has access to stable, dignified housing,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Dr. Helen Arteaga. “Following the success of our first site in Manhattan, we are proud to expand this model to Brooklyn and provide more New Yorkers with the care and support they need to move into permanent supportive housing.”
“A year ago, we opened Bridge to Home on a simple premise: patients with serious mental illness are far more likely to stay well if they leave the hospital for a stable place with care on-site, rather than a shelter or the street,” said Dr. Mitchell Katz, President and CEO, NYC Health + Hospitals. “Our Manhattan guests and their incredible care team have shown what that stability makes possible — staying engaged in treatment, completing housing applications, and moving into homes of their own. I am grateful for the support of Mayor Mamdani and our city partners who have helped us quickly open our Brooklyn site so that we can offer that same path to a better life for more New Yorkers in need.
Bridge to Home: Brooklyn will welcome its first guests this week and at full capacity will provide private rooms for up to 50 New Yorkers. Guests can stay for up to 12 months or until they are connected with permanent supportive housing.
Located near NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull, the Brooklyn facility will allow guests to remain connected to a broad range of medical and behavioral health services, including substance use disorder treatment, individual and group therapy, social services and around-the-clock medical support.
The first Bridge to Home site opened in Midtown Manhattan in September 2025. During its first year, the program demonstrated strong engagement with clinical care and housing services:
- About 80% of current guests attend weekly clinical visits
- 70% have completed housing applications.
- Among guests who have transitioned into permanent supportive housing, the average length of stay is about seven months.
With the opening of the Brooklyn facility, Bridge to Home can now serve nearly 100 New Yorkers at any given time.
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest provider of behavioral health services in New York City, serving more than 82,000 patients annually. Nearly half of those patients experience homelessness. For many, housing instability can make recovery more difficult and increase reliance on emergency and inpatient care.
Bridge to Home addresses that gap by giving New Yorkers a stable place to live while they receive intensive clinical support and work with staff to secure permanent housing. The program is designed to reduce unnecessary emergency room visits and hospitalizations, reliance on shelters and homelessness, while helping New Yorkers build a path toward long-term stability.
“When patients with serious mental illness have a stable place to go after they leave our hospitals, we now have the opportunity to create a lasting change in the course of their lives,” said Ted Long, MD, MHS, Chief Medical Officer for Clinical Services and Population Health at NYC Health + Hospitals. “What we’ve learned at our Bridge to Home site in Manhattan is that stability and onsite services will change the trajectory of someone’s recovery. Our guests stay engaged in their care, avoid return trips to the emergency room, and work with our teams to prepare to live in permanent supportive housing. I am grateful to Mayor Mamdani and all who have helped us open this second facility in Brooklyn, where more New Yorkers will now have the chance to move from a hospital bed to a home of their own.”
“Leaving the hospital is not the end of recovery — in many ways, it is when the recovery work actually begins,” said Omar Fattal, MD, MPH, NYC Health + Hospitals Chief Behavioral Health Officer. “For people with serious mental illness who are experiencing homelessness, that requires a safe and stable place to live. Bridge to Home is a connection between getting well in the hospital and building a life in the community. It provides the stability and support patients need as they work toward recovery and permanent housing. We have seen the impact of this model in Manhattan, and we are excited to bring it to Brooklyn.”
“At Woodhull Hospital, we understand that a safe place to recover can be just as important as the care provided inside the hospital,” said Sandra Sneed, MBA, FACHE, Chief Executive Officer of NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull. “Bridge to Home strengthens the continuum of care by giving patients living with mental health challenges the clinical support, stability, and housing resources they need to move forward. We are proud to help bring this innovative model to Brooklyn and closer to the communities we serve.”
“Every week, our inpatient teams at Woodhull care for patients who are ready to leave the hospital but have nowhere safe to go, and too often we see them come back to us in crisis because they didn’t have a safe place to live or stay adherent to their medications,” said Rajvee Vora, MD, MS, Chief of Psychiatry at NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull. “Many of them cite homelessness as the number one reason for their relapse and decompensation. With Bridge to Home: Brooklyn, our psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, and peer specialists can continue caring for these patients right here in the community, in a place where they can rest, stay connected to treatment, and begin building the lives they want. This is continuity of care in its truest sense, and it is a proud day for Woodhull and for Brooklyn. This program is Woodhull’s commitment to walking alongside our patients through that transition, connecting them to housing, treatment, and community so that leaving the hospital means moving forward, not starting over.”
“Every New Yorker deserves a safe place to heal, recover, and rebuild their lives. Brooklyn has always been a borough that looks out for its neighbors, and Bridge to Home: Brooklyn reflects that commitment by bringing stable housing, quality behavioral health care, and compassionate holistic services together under one space,” said Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke. “The opening of the Crown Heights facility strengthens our community’s behavioral health infrastructure and gives more Brooklynites living with severe mental illness a stable pathway from hospitalization to permanent housing. As a proud member of this community, I am especially pleased to see the expansion of this innovative model based on the fundamental connection between housing, health, and dignity. I commend NYC Health + Hospitals and all of our city partners for making this critical investment to ensure that Brooklynites receive the care they deserve.”
“Bridge to Home is a critical step forward in supporting New Yorkers struggling with mental illness,” said New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie. “This program recognizes that stable housing and comprehensive care are essential for recovery and dignity. I’m proud to see NYC Health + Hospitals expanding this lifesaving model in Crown Heights, and I look forward to working with our partners to ensure every patient who needs this support can access it.”
“Housing is health care,” said Council Member Crystal Hudson, Chair of the Committee on General Welfare. “When someone is well enough to leave the hospital but has no home to return to, we’re setting them up to fail. Bridge to Home offers a real answer: a private room, treatment on site, and a team helping guests get into permanent housing. Opening a second site in Crown Heights means that at any given time, up to 100 New Yorkers can now get the support they need. I thank NYC Health + Hospitals for its commitment to New Yorkers who too often fall through the cracks.”
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About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest municipal health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlusHealth plan—all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 46,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.