This mobile clinic rolls up to homeless New Yorkers who need mental health services

Two days a week, an RV-like van parks outside a Chelsea soup kitchen with a licensed psychiatrist on board offering care to anyone who wants it.

There’s no need for a referral, insurance or a prior diagnosis. The clinic’s on-board psychiatrist helps people who are living on the street or in a shelter by prescribing medication, helping them manage their prescriptions or sometimes just listening.

The mobile initiative, run by a nonprofit organization called Project Renewal, is part of a citywide ecosystem that aims to treat people who are living on the streets and subways with serious mental illness. Now they are hoping to expand. While other service providers focus on street outreach or brick-and-mortar clinics, this mobile program sets up outside soup kitchens or shelters — places where people in need may gather — offering medical care coupled with mental health.

A record number of New Yorkers are living on the street though they still make up just 3% of the homeless population, who are largely residing in shelters. The city comptroller’s office estimates there are about 2,000 people living with serious mental illness who are cycling through the streets, subways, jails and hospitals.

The goal of the mobile clinic is to help individuals struggling with mental health issues before they experience a crisis or potentially get taken to the hospital by police against their will. Mayor Eric Adams made involuntary commitments a key part of his strategy to address street homelessness and mental health. In 2022, he expanded the rules for when someone can be involuntarily taken to the hospital and said it was a necessary step to improve public safety and make New Yorkers feel safer riding the trains. Those measures were codified into state law this year.