Multiple outreach teams work the same blocks of Midtown Manhattan every day, canvassing sidewalks, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and the subway system, yet they may lack access to information about the same person. State Sen. Erik Bottcher wants to change that with a bill introduced August 14 that would create a framework for coordination among teams serving homeless New Yorkers.
The legislation, Senate Bill S10682, is listed on the New York State Senate. As reported by W42ST, Midtown has multiple teams serving people living on its streets, and different outreach organizations often lack access to information about services already offered to the same individual — creating duplicated, siloed efforts instead of coordinated care.
State Sen. Erik Bottcher and Assemblymember Tony Simone are backing efforts to coordinate homeless services, W42ST's Catie Savage reports.
Proposed Changes to Outreach Coordination
The bill includes provisions concerning multidisciplinary personnel teams, according to the state Senate. The proposal focuses on coordination among social-service and healthcare providers.
A New York State Assembly report linked in the article provides background on the issue. The report is cited as part of the broader policy discussion around coordinated street care.
Record Street Count Adds Urgency
The push for coordination comes as New York City's unsheltered population has reached a record-high count. The NYC Department of Social Services reported that 4,991 individuals were counted as unsheltered on the night of March 10, 2026, a roughly 400-person increase from 4,505. The street count is one measure of the city's homeless population.
The article also discusses the city's shelter capacity.
Existing Programs Already Rely on Coordination
NYC Health + Hospitals already runs a version of the multidisciplinary model the bill seeks to formalize. Its Street Health Outreach + Wellness mobile unit program, alongside Primary Care Safety Net clinics at public hospitals like Bellevue, combines primary care providers, social workers, community health workers, and addiction counselors on the same teams to reach individuals who avoid brick-and-mortar clinics, according to NYC Health + Hospitals.
Separately, the city's Department of Homeless Services has established Coordinated Behavioral Health Taskforces to coordinate multidisciplinary care for high-needs unsheltered individuals, backed by up to $5.5 million in federal SIPPRA pay-for-results funding. The research group MDRC is conducting a randomized controlled trial to measure whether that integrated care model improves long-term housing and health outcomes compared to usual care.
Midtown's Rocky Recent History With Outreach Infrastructure
Midtown's homeless service landscape has already seen turbulence. In September 2024, a state Supreme Court judge permanently barred the city's Department of Homeless Services from prematurely terminating its contract with the Mainchance Drop-In Center in Midtown East ahead of its original June 2026 expiration date, according to City Limits. The article also links to a Hoodline report about the center.
The city also has an outreach operation known as HOME-STAT, discussed in the linked comptroller report.
Who's Behind the Reporting
The bill was detailed in reporting by W42ST deputy editor Catie Savage, who has lived in Hell's Kitchen since 2005 and worked in the luxury fashion industry for 15 years before pivoting to community advocacy in 2020. Savage has served as a member of Manhattan Community Board 4, co-chairs the HK49-54 Block Alliance, and founded Litter Legion, according to the outlet's reporting.
S10682 arrives alongside other Bottcher-backed measures aimed at the city's housing and homelessness landscape, including an artist-housing bill introduced earlier this year. Whether the data-sharing framework can move through Albany, and how privacy safeguards and client consent will be handled in practice, remains to be seen as the bill advances.
