With over 22,000 layoffs of city workers looming, the mayor cant seriously expect to keep funding full-time, highly paid speechwriters and professional videographers for his wifes political ambitions. McCray's organization is now on track to spend $1 billion over five years. I first saw the story online under the title: Bill DeBlasios Wife Reportedly Loses $850 Million of Taxpayer Funds!, Sometimes you look at a headline like this and think: that cant possibly be true.. The site said it had tried and failed to acquire a line-item budget from Thrive, and the two budget breakdowns it had seen showed wildly different numbers. ), One indicator of the need for services: The phones at NYC-WELL ring constantly, 180,000 times in 2018, according to city data. That the co-mayors could fly under the radar to burn through $1.6 billion to no obvious good effect is an embarrassment but understandable in the abstract. The city said that was a function of the programs design. Four years later, no one seems to know what that money was actually used for, according to the New York Post. Ms. McCray, who created and oversees ThriveNYC, faced tough questions on its performance and spending during a packed special hearing of the City Council on Tuesday. Actually, first lady Chirlane McCray works hard for free, her husband Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday, and he is not happy about it. Public health officials credit the plan for drawing attention to mental health, often too easily ignored by political leaders. Mental health first aid classes include discussions and role playing; Ms. McCray implores people to take the course, but has not yet been able to get her husband to do it. It's gone. Four years later, no one seems to know what that money was actually used for, according to the New York Post. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion! 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Bill de Blasio's wife Chirlane McCray cannot explain where $850million given to the mental health program she champions has gone, according to reports. But the police are still often the only ones available to respond quickly to calls, even to the mental health line. But this is 2019, and the general feeling at least in the deBlasio administration is that if theres not a lot of dough attached to the spousal sinecure, it doesnt really matter enough. McCrays office provided The CIty with names of eight full-time employees whose salaries added up to about $1.1 million. At least one stat the program tracks showed underperformance in an area of particular importance to McCray. Chirlane McCray has made her advocacy on behalf of mental health a big part of Thrive, as she seeks to erase the stigma around seeking services. To serve that population, the city is spending $12 million a year on the NYC-WELL hotline not including nearly $11 million spent on advertising in 2017, mostly to promote the service. It was honorable work, it didnt cost very much and it filled up the spouses free time. Budget watchdogs have lamented Thrives opacity. That Stringer could sleep through it all is the real scandal; why does the city even have a comptroller, if thats the standard of performance? The government could decide not to have a nepotism restriction but it would come with costs like undermining the public trust, Clark said. Other measurements seemingly have nothing to do with the mental health of New Yorkers. And its only (your) money even if it is quite a lot of it. As of 2022, the amount has not been accounted for. The site said it had tried and failed to acquire a line-item budget from Thrive, and the two budget breakdowns it had seen showed wildly different numbers. JUST RELEASED: Phone Call To Chinese Manufacturer Requesting a Bulk Classic Video of Donald Trump on Larry King In 1987 Democrats Hiding That John Fetterman is Brain Dead to Prevent Special Election? Right up there with co-Mayor Bill, who started the week on his own sour note announcing that his signature Renewal school program was closing up shop after pounding $773 million down a rathole. But lets be clear: If your boondogglery sets the New York City Council back on its heels, you truly are soaring with the eagles. Withoutrecords, the schemeis unable to pinpoint where the missing funding has been allocated, if at all. Now, a year later, the city is rejiggering the program once again to include a centralized office and further engrain the initiatives into city agencies to ensure that Thrive outlasts the de Blasio administration. Hey, its Noah and I want to make sure were connected on Twitter. Officials are also collecting survey data. Four years later, no one seems to know what that money was actually used for, according to the New York Post. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife, Chirlane McCray, was given $900 million to start a mental health initiative focusing on helping the homeless in the city. It is crazy and ridiculous when someone gets funded $850 million and I dont get a response right away, he said, adding later, If you have a service, you have to respond to that service otherwise, close up.. In the case of diversion programs, which aim to keep individuals with mental health and substance use problems in treatment instead of jails, Thrive only tracks the number of people released under supervision and those screened during pre-arraignment not if or how city-funded intervention worked. Four years later, no one seems to know what that money was actually used for, according to the New York Post.The City Council discovered this shocking amount of potential waste during a New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife, Chirlane McCray, was given $900 million to start a mental health initiative focusing on helping the homeless in the city. Thrive NYC is really best understood as a tale of two cities initiative, said Stephen Eide, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and an expert on homelessness and urban policy. No, Dr. Gary Belkin, a top health official and the chief of policy and strategy for Thrive, said of using the hotline to connect people to care effectively. It is a hard thing to measure, because its never existed before, Ms. McCray said in an interview at Gracie Mansion last month. Fast-forward to Wednesday, when the City Council was startled to discover that McCray and Team Thrive are closing in on having spent an eye-popping $900 million since the programs inception and nobody seems to have a clue on what. The aim of the scheme was to improve 100 of New York's worst schools, but after three years of trying, just 25 of them improved enough to make it off the list. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. That is, nobody appears to have kept receipts; the subways and street corners are still overrun with crazy people, and nobody in charge knows whats to happen next. So, what are the right measures?. But back home, the effort, now in its fourth year, has sputtered. Bill de Blasio's wife Chirlane McCray cannot explain where $850million given to the mental health program she champions has gone, according to reports. Fox News host Laura Ingraham called it a "mental health scheme." The fact is that a health program championed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife cannot account for $850 million taxpayer dollars. SheisalsothechairmanoftheMayorsFundtoAdvanceNewYorkCityandtheexecutivedirectorofThriveNYC. But even in spite of that the city has decided to increase the budget of the program which is expected to spend $5 billion in the next five years. Stop the censors, sign up to get today's top stories delivered right to your inbox. The data also showed almost 190,000 Narcan kits were handed out to hospitals where opioid use is common, but there is no evidence of how many were used. McCray, who is reportedly looking torun for Brooklyn borough president, has a staff of 14 people,sources told The CIty. Repeatedly presented by City Hall as a four-year $850 million plan, city officials now say $560 million will have been spent in that time. Mental health advocates have been pressing the city to overhaul how emergency personnel respond to situations involving people experiencing the effects of severe mental health issues. Among the concerns raised were that she is not subject to questions from the press or many disclosure requirements, as a government official would be. De Blasio says the questions smack of sexism, that McCray is a key decision-maker, and it should come as no surprise that she plays a role in staff picks and high-profile initiatives. Follow me on Twitter @kwadwo_dost, Ghanaian songstress and actress Hajia4Real. Thank you! McCray acknowledged in October 2018 that the city does not often discuss Thrives programming for violent individuals due to stigma. According to the Daily Mail, Thrive said it has developed a list of 417 metrics to measure how effective the program is moving forward, but asked to assess its impact so far, Politico said the data was piecemeal and showed a largely failing picture. Thrive also is meant to focus on communities African Americans, Latinos, military veterans who are less likely to seek care for mental health problems. The Thrive program, which had its budget raised to $250 million per year in 2019, has produced some underwhelming numbers in terms of how many people it impacts. SICK: Here Is That Perverted Sex Ed Video Teaching First Graders To Masturbate, Pfizer Makes Stunning Admission On COVID-19 Jab Clinical Trials, China & Cambodia Report Human Cases of Avian Flu, Next Pandemic?, EPA Forces Norfolk Southern to Test For Dioxins in East Palestine After Heated Town Hall. That it should happen in a single week is worse its an embarrassment. Sign up for our free email newsletter, and we'll make sure to keep you in the loop. McCray formally serves as chair of the Mayors Fund to Advance New York City and is the face of ThriveNYC an $850 million dollar administration initiative she helped design to improve the citys mental health and substance abuse services. But the interaction is not therapy, cautioned Dr. Anitha Iyer, who helps oversee the call center. DE BLASIO EXTENDS STATE OF EMERGENCY IN NEW YORK FOR ANOTHER 30 DAYS, "That article [referring to The City story]didn't take into account the work that's being done," de Blasio said. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's (D) wife backed a "mental health scheme" that has now cost taxpayers $850 million. Updated: 02/27/2019 05:14 PM EST Since its inception in 2015, ThriveNYC the city's sprawling $850 million initiative to address a variety of mental health issues has operated without much. And even some experienced in mental health services have been surprised at what the service does not offer. The wife of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio "can't account for" $850 million in missing taxpayer money that was granted to her mental health project, according to reports. The outcome has not come close to reaching the goal. Chirlane McCray, the wife of NYC mayor Bill de Blasio, can't account for hundreds of millions in federal taxpayer money. Thats a misconception that people often have, she said. But the co-mayor made performance promises when he initiated the Renewal program, few of which even remotely were met, and presently gravity prevailed: The program caved in on itself. Click here to log out. If were not addressing those two problems, then whatever we are doing is lacking, Eide said. Some requested anonymity for fear of retaliation while others were more vocal in their critiques. Ms. McCray implores those she meets to take the course, which includes discussions and role playing. Seven mayors attended a 2017 national mental health conference in New York City. His wife, Chirlane McCray, was given $850 million for a mental health program she was spearheading, The Daily Mail reported. But lets be clear: If your boondogglery sets the New York City Council back on its heels, you truly are soaring with the eagles. That Stringer could sleep through it all is the real scandal; why does the city even have a comptroller, if thats the standard of performance? Arizona Hospital Temporarily Suspends Admission of Cardiac Arrest Patients Due Democrats Hiding That John Fetterman is Brain Dead to Prevent Special Election? Is Kathy Hochul's governorship already beyond redemption? Besides the ramped-up spending, a big part of Thrive has been Ms. McCrays advocacy. 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New York is supposed to be better than that. Social media ads promoting Thrive have reached millions of people, according to the metrics, but the data doesnt show how many people actually used the program after learning about it. It seems that Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife (Chirlane McCray) headed a taxpayer-funded project called ThriveNYC and now she can not, or will not, account for $850 million in taxpayer money. That is, no one appears to have kept receipts; the subways and street corners are still crawling with lunatics, and no one in control knows what will happen next. Hey, its Noah and I want to make sure were connected on Twitter. People are being asked to do more in this system that is not built for expansion, he said. Legal Statement. Its safe again and were having a lot of fun over there. City officials, for example, could not say how many people have been connected to treatment after calling the citys new mental health hotline, because fewer than 10 percent agree to a follow-up. The City Council discovered this shocking amount of potential waste . New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio attempted to defend first lady Chirlane McCray against backlash on Wednesday after it was discovered she had private staff that's getting paid millions in taxpayer money. The data also showed almost 190,000 Narcan kits were handed out to hospital where opioid use is common, but there is no evidence of how many were used. Thrive has publicized some data through the mayors annual management report of all city agencies, beginning in 2016, but it encompassed only a fraction of the programs scope. They have good ideas, but the implementation is what they stumble on, said Steve Coe, the chief executive of Community Access, which provides housing and other services to the mentally ill. Thrives primary focus is on the other end of the spectrum: New Yorkers who have less serious and possibly undiagnosed mental health problems, a population that according to City Hall encompasses 1.7 million city residents. Thrive is really corrective to the narrowness with which we approach this issue, which leaves a lot of people without care, a lot of people untouched, a lot of people not getting what they need, and its precisely the need to widen it that were trying to fix.. https://t.co/oKaowNxGjT #NYC #DeBlasio, Michael E. Newton (@MichaelENewton1) March 1, 2019, What a waste these two are.De Blasio and 'co-mayor' wife have wasted $1.8B of taxpayer money https://t.co/85S88hQUuq via @nypost, MyLivesGoUpTo11 (@AlexStrayCat_) March 1, 2019, Chirlane McCoy (DeBlasio) spends $850 MILLION & can't account for it???? How about the Hurricane Sandy recovery effort six years, uncountable delays and billions of dollars later? POLITICO spoke to more than 16 people, including elected officials, advocates, representatives of community organizations, researchers and consultants who said that although it is crucial for the city to invest in mental health resources, they did not know whether Thrive was successful and said the city has an obligation to publicize its numbers and how it compares to the goals it set out to accomplish. Health Department employees now conduct the eight-hour classes daily at churches, community centers and schools, like this one at Metropolitan College of New York. I dont know if we have them available yet, but we certainly are tracking what people are calling about, what theyre asking for, and as much demographic information as we can, McCray said. More than $15 million has been budgeted over the last three years for the effort; none has been spent. Before the Thrive initiative, he said, there was not even a pretense of a mental health system in the city.. The plan, which includes dozens of discrete programs across 15 city agencies, has undergone two leadership changes in the last year; the most recent saw a top official from the Police Department, Susan Herman, taking charge last month. Initially, his son refused to cooperate. Please check your email inbox to confirm your message and send it to our editorial team. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. A retired psychiatric social worker dialed NYC-WELL last year hoping for a nonpolice response for his 37-year-old son, who had been making threats and had a history of manic episodes. I dont understand it because if someone is working full time and is a professional with a whole lot of background and applying themselves, I dont understand why they cant get paid, the mayor said during an unrelated press conference. But also mayoral spouse Chirlane McCray, who has just been revealed as a world-class boondoggler in her own right. Oh, brother. I bet you're never seen this story reported on the nightly newsbut don't worry, we'll show it to you! The data comes from aPolitico report that shows those running the scheme have largely failed to measure its impact or keep track of spending. Zelensky Exposed (Literally): This Is The Guy We Are Sending Billions To? When youre thinking about performance, theres both outcome and output, said Ana Champeny, director of city studies at the Citizens Budget Commission. (Hes kind of busy, she said. She occasionally speaks of her own experience with therapy, and in the interview, she spoke obliquely of her brief return to treatment last year. That is, nobody appears to have kept receipts; the subways and street corners are still overrun with crazy people, and nobody in charge knows whats to happen next. Four years later, no one seems to know what that money was actually used for, according to the New York Post. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife, Chirlane McCray, was given $900 million to start a mental health initiative focusing on helping the homeless in the city. Bob McManus is a contributing editor of City Journal. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Bill de Blasio's wife Chirlane McCray cannot explain where $850million given to the mental health program she champions has gone, according to reports. During one such episode in 2012, a man whose family members called 911 to try to help him, attacked one of the responding officers, stabbing him in the neck and face. In recent months the administration moved to change that, creating a centralized office for the program, appointing a senior adviser to oversee it and releasing budget details and data on 472 metrics against which it could weigh the programs effectiveness. SICK: Here Is That Perverted Sex Ed Video Teaching First Graders To Masturbate, Pfizer Makes Stunning Admission On COVID-19 Jab Clinical Trials, China & Cambodia Report Human Cases of Avian Flu, Next Pandemic?, EPA Forces Norfolk Southern to Test For Dioxins in East Palestine After Heated Town Hall. It was not as obvious what I, as first lady, would take on; I wanted to take on something big, Ms. McCray said in the interview. Another prominent element of Thrive is an expansion of mental health first aid training. Powerful personality ChirlaneMcCrayisapoliticalfigureintheUnitedStates,aswellasawriter,communicationsexpert,editor,andactivist. Much of the development of Thrive was personal, born of Mr. de Blasios and Ms. McCrays own difficulties navigating the mental health system on behalf of their daughter, Chiara, who struggled with depression and drugs during high school and college. Bill de Blasio's wife can't account for staggering amount of taxpayer money that the NY Mayor gave her for mental health project Bill de Blasio's wife Chirlane McCray cannot explain where $850million given to the mental health program she champions has gone, according to reports. That is, reversing Bloomberg administration plans to shut down 100 miserably malfunctioning schools, thus saving the jobs of barely competent teachers and administrators and shutting up small bands of noisy parents who loved the schools despite their failings. Last month, McCray and de Blasio announced the appointment of Deputy Mayor Phil Thompson together. Things happen. If you love what we do, please consider a $1/month donation to keep us live! Bill de Blasio's wife cant account for $850 million allocated to her pet project. She took a mental health first aid course in October 2014.