The tragic case of the murder of Rob Reiner and his wife in their Brentwood, Calif. home, allegedly by their once-homeless, drug-addicted son, who was arrested for the crime last night, illustrates how untreated mental illness and addiction perpetuates cycles of instability, violence, and suffering that extend beyond the individual to families and often, entire communities. Earlier this month, in Bethpage, Long Island, beloved deli owners were fatally stabbed inside their family-run A & A Italian Deli by their 30-year-old son, Vito D’Ambrosio, who, like Rob Reiner’s son, shared a history of violence, drug abuse, and homelessness. (RELATED: Nearly Half Dead in Luxury Apartments Given to Utah Homeless)
These familial homicides demonstrate that addiction, mental illness, and homelessness are not just an inner-city problem. But recent subway assaults by violent homeless individuals in New York City — ranging from slashing commuters to setting riders on fire — show how homelessness combined with untreated mental illness and addiction can escalate into violence that endangers both vulnerable individuals, their families, and the wider public.
In one of the more recent incidents in a growing number of subway attacks, Tyquan Manassa, a homeless man with 14 previous convictions for assault and criminal mischief, slashed the faces of two men waiting for the subway in Queens. Earlier that same November 2025 day, Manassa had caused mayhem at a City homeless shelter when he attacked a sleeping shelter resident and did $1,000 worth of damage to property at the shelter. (RELATED: Treating Insanity, Not Normalizing It)
Mamdani ignores decades of social science research demonstrating that the majority of homeless individuals struggle with mental illness or substance use disorders.
Despite all of this — and there are dozens more subway assaults by violent homeless individuals just this past year — Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has pledged to end New York City’s practice of clearing homeless encampments and forcing homeless individuals into treatment or shelters. Arguing that sweeps fail to connect people to stable housing, Mamdani has promised instead to allow encampments to remain while focusing his administration on expanding rental housing options, saying that homelessness is not inevitable but the result of repeated political choices: “If you are not connecting homeless New Yorkers to the housing that they so desperately need, then you cannot deem anything you’re doing to be a success … We are going to take an approach that understands its mission is connecting those New Yorkers to housing.” (RELATED: Gooder and Harder, New York)
Suggesting that the homeless are an apartment away from a good life, Mamdani ignores decades of social science research demonstrating that the majority of homeless individuals struggle with mental illness or substance use disorders. More than two-thirds of people experiencing homelessness have a mental health disorder, and about one-third (38 percent alcohol, 26 percent drugs) struggle with substance abuse. Many face both conditions simultaneously, creating complex barriers to stability.
In a 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association of 85 studies mainly from Canada, Germany, and the U.S. involving more than 48,400 participants, the lifetime prevalence of mental health disorders among people experiencing homelessness was 77 percent. The lifetime prevalence was higher among male than female individuals: 85 percent versus 69 percent, respectively. Placing a severely mentally ill homeless individual into housing without confronting the dangers of untreated addiction and mental illness and the very real risk of violence toward neighbors is not compassion — it is reckless policy.
But this is just one of many reckless policies that Mayor-elect Mamdani has proposed. He should know that housing alone cannot resolve the complex realities of homelessness when most of the unhoused population suffer from serious mental health disorders, and large percentages struggle with addiction. His “plan” to address homelessness calls for tripling the city’s production of publicly subsidized, permanently affordable, rent‑stabilized homes, aiming to build 200,000 new units over the next 10 years. He also proposes doubling capital investment in preserving existing public housing, claiming that “When the City allows private developers to build, we are inviting the private sector to profit.”
Mamdani’s proposal to bar private sector investment and instead expand public housing for the homeless not only undermines the incentive for private developers to build and invest in the City, but also ignores the deeper realities of homelessness, particularly the untreated mental illness and addiction that drive instability and violence. Unless the mayor‑elect directly addresses the real cause of homelessness — through integrated treatment, accountability, and mandated mental health treatment — his housing initiatives will remain superficial gestures, incapable of delivering lasting solutions, leaving both vulnerable individuals and entire communities trapped in cycles of suffering.
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