Committee on Mental Health and Substance Use meeting
March 19, 2026, 9:30 AM
Jointly with the Committee on Health and the Committee on Disabilities
The Committee on Mental Health and Substance Use held its FY2027 preliminary budget hearing, jointly with the Committees on Health and on Disabilities, on the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, and the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities. The committees took testimony and recorded no votes.
What was discussed
- Joint committees convene for the health and disability budget hearing Chairperson Lynn Schulman opened the Fiscal 2027 preliminary budget hearing held jointly by the Committees on Health, on Mental Health and Substance Use (Chair Tiffany Cabán), and on Disabilities (Chair Shahana Hanif), covering OCME, DOHMH, and the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities; Public
- Office of the Chief Medical Examiner presents its budget The Chief Medical Examiner delivered OCME's testimony to the joint committees, describing the agency's forensic work and budget heading into Fiscal 2027.
- How are OCME's vacancies, fleet, and autopsy backlog affecting operations? Asked by Chairperson Lynn Schulman, the Chief Medical Examiner said most vacancies stem from newly added, highly specialized forensic positions (with 23 of 25 grant-funded roles selected), that OCME has a 48-vehicle fleet, that it lost roughly a third of its medical examiner staff over two years
- What did OCME find on cold-weather deaths and the overdose crisis? Asked by Chairperson Lynn Schulman, the Chief Medical Examiner said OCME confirmed 16 outdoor, non-residential deaths due to hypothermia during the Code Blue period, and that its Drug Intelligence and Intervention Group, now backed by $4 million in baselined opioid-settlement funding with 7 of 11
- DOHMH Commissioner presents the department's budget Dr. Alister Martin, Commissioner of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, delivered the agency's testimony to the joint committees, framing DOHMH's wide-ranging public-health portfolio and budget pressures.
- How will DOHMH meet savings targets across its programs? Asked by Finance Chair Linda Lee, Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin and Chief Financial Officer Aaron Anderson said DOHMH is working with its Chief Savings Officer and casting a wide net across all programs while trying to preserve critical services, evaluating each program on its own metrics in
- How does DOHMH's medical debt cancellation program work? Asked by Finance Chair Linda Lee, Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin said DOHMH partners with Undue Medical Debt to buy and cancel debt cheaply citywide, that the effort totals about $18 million ($6 million reflected in FY27), and that medical debt is the biggest driver of personal bankruptcy, with the
- How exposed is DOHMH to federal and Medicaid funding cuts? Asked by Chairperson Lynn Schulman, Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin and CFO Aaron Anderson said DOHMH received $453 million in federal funding in FY26 (including Ryan White HIV/AIDS funds), that roughly $500 million, about 20% of its budget, is at risk, and that the state's shift from Section 1332
- How is DOHMH sustaining HIV prevention and sexual health services? Asked by Chairperson Lynn Schulman, Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin said DOHMH is working to maintain outreach, testing, and condom distribution amid federal cuts to HIV-prevention programs and the loss of sexual and reproductive health clinics in Manhattan and Brooklyn, even as new HIV diagnoses
- Is DOHMH's maternal health funding enough to close disparities? Asked by Chairperson Lynn Schulman, Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin discussed the roughly $49.9 million in maternal and child health funding, efforts to address racial disparities in maternal mortality, and DOHMH's collaboration with Health + Hospitals, while Schulman pressed on whether current
- How is DOHMH responding to rising TB, Legionnaires', and chronic disease? Asked by Chairperson Lynn Schulman, Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin said DOHMH is responding to an 832-case, 23% rise in tuberculosis (linked partly to rising homelessness), continuing cooling-tower inspections and a 93-position Legionnaires' program, and pursuing Healthy NYC goals on diabetes and
- Are DOHMH's mental health ACT, FACT, and IMT teams adequately funded? Asked by Chairperson Tiffany Cabán, Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin, CFO Aaron Anderson, and Assistant Commissioner Jamie Neckles said the ACT and FACT mobile-treatment programs are fully contracted to about 20 providers (ACT at $23.8 million, with a combined ACT/FACT figure dropping to $23.3
- What is the future of clubhouses and syringe-services programs? Asked by Council Member Sandy Nurse, Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin and Assistant Commissioner Jamie Neckles said clubhouses are an essential part of the city's mental-health approach (with Council funding flowing through DOHMH to several, including some that lost funding), and that the
- How does DOHMH support people with developmental disabilities? Asked by Chairperson Shahana Hanif, Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin said DOHMH spends about $9.6 million across 68 contracts on developmental-disabilities services (largely New York City-based providers) and runs early-intervention programming funded mainly through the state's Medicaid program
- Are school-based health centers adequately staffed and funded? Asked by Council Member Althea Stevens, DOHMH witnesses discussed funding for school-based health centers (including an unevenly split allocation between two centers), staffing levels, and support for LGBTQIA+ students, with Stevens pressing the agency to bring specific figures to future hearings.
- Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities testifies for the first time Commissioner Agarwal of the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities delivered what he called the office's first-ever budget testimony before the committees, outlining MOPD's coordinating role across city agencies.
- How does MOPD drive accessibility across city agencies? Asked by Chairperson Shahana Hanif, Commissioner Agarwal said MOPD relies on a Disability Service Facilitator in each agency rather than a single blanket ADA policy, provides training and feedback, and tracks city-agency website and app accessibility compliance, with financial constraints among the
- What does MOPD do on disability employment, housing, and transit? Asked by Chairperson Shahana Hanif and Finance Chair Linda Lee, Commissioner Agarwal described MOPD's At Work program (which it said helped connect about 2,500 people with disabilities to jobs), its role guiding agencies on accessible housing such as Housing Connect 2.0, and its transit
- Public testimony on health, medical debt, and mental health services Members of the public and advocates testified on the agencies' budgets, raising HIV and sexual-health services, maternal health, medical debt relief, and the need to sustain and expand mental-health and substance-use programs such as ACT/IMT teams, clubhouses, and syringe services.
- Public testimony from the disability community Disability advocates and self-advocates testified on accessibility, services, and MOPD's role, urging stronger agency accountability, accessible communications and transit, and expanded support for people with disabilities; chairs Shahana Hanif and Tiffany Cabán asked follow-up questions about
Agenda
1 item
- T2026-1366 New York City Council Budget and Oversight Hearings on The Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2027 The Preliminary Capital Plan for Fiscal Years 2027-2030, and The Fiscal 2026 Preliminary Mayor’s Management Report 9:30 a.m. Office of Medical Examiner 10:30 a.m. Department of Health and Mental Hearing Held by Committee