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Yang, a former presidential candidate, faces backlash over his comments about people with mental illness and the homeless. Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images
New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang doubled down on his comments on people with mental illness on Monday.
Yang said people with mental illness affect tourism during an appearance on billionaire John Catsimatidis’s radio show.
Yang echoed the remarks he made on mental illness and homelessness during the New York mayor’s debate last week.
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In the final hours of the New York mayoral campaign, candidate Andrew Yang doubled down on his comments on the mentally ill and the homeless.
Calling on a radio show with billionaire John Catsimatidis on Monday, Yang complained that people with mental illness are affecting the city’s tourism.
Yang was responding to Catsimatidis’ statement that too many mentally ill people live on the streets rather than in hospitals. He agreed with Catsimatidis that the money is better spent on building facilities to treat people.
“We have to give them the care they need, but it will also boost our economic recovery because we see all these mentally ill on our streets and our subways, and you know who else is seeing them? Tourists. And then they don’t. don’t come back and they say to their friends, ‘don’t go to New York,’ “Yang said.
“We’re never going to get our jobs and our economy back if we don’t get the mentally ill who are on our streets in a better environment,” Yang added.
The comments Yang made on Monday were similar to those he made during the New York mayor’s debate last Wednesday, for which he received negative reactions on social media.
“Yes, the mentally ill have rights, but you know who else has rights? We have them! The people and families of the city,” Yang said last week during the debate. “We have the right to walk on the streets and not to fear for our safety because a mentally ill person is going to come after us.”
According to a New York Times article, Yang said at an event later Monday with fellow candidate Kathryn Garcia that he supported the comments he made to Catsimatidis. Yang also stressed the need for “public security”.
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“There will be no economic recovery until people feel safe on our streets and in our subways,” Yang told The New York Times.
Other candidates campaigning against Yang for the mayoral seat have denounced Yang’s comments about mentally ill New Yorkers.
Zack Fink of Spectrum News NY1 interviewed mayoral candidate Maya Wiley, who said Yang and Garcia asked her to campaign with them on Monday. But Wiley told NY1 she turned down the duo because she thought Yang’s statements in Wednesday’s debate were “very insensitive.”
Meanwhile, the Times quoted candidate Eric Adams, who said he was “really disturbed” by Yang’s comments.
According to a 2019 study by the advocacy group of the Coalition for the Homeless, about 40% of the homeless population in New York City were women and children fleeing situations of domestic violence. The coalition estimates that as of April 2021, there were 53,199 homeless people in the city’s municipal shelter system, including 16,390 children.
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