ASKED & ANSWERED How Central Park is studying climate change PAGE 13
CRAINSNEWYORK.COM
|
REAL ESTATE Top property sales, outerborough projects and an heir’s deal PAGE 16
SEPTEMBER 19, 2022
SPECIAL REPORT
FATAL NEGLECT
Homeless New Yorkers with serious mental illness keep falling through the cracks despite billions in spending
BY MAYA KAUFMAN
M
onths before Martial Simon pushed Michelle Go to her death in front of a subway train, his mind had been seized by an unusual toothache. Simon was confined at the time to the Bronx Psychiatric Center, a state hospital. A nurse offered to connect him with a dentist, but he refused. The dentist was working with the FBI, which was using satellites to loosen his teeth, he said. Despite Simon’s tenuous grasp on reality, the hospital discharged him a few weeks later, in July 2021. He had been hospitalized for five months. Workers escorted him to an apartment building in the Bronx, where he could live with on-site services. They left Only a small proportion him with a 30-day supply of medication and of homeless New Yorkers a next-day appointment with a psychiatrist. have a serious mental He never showed. In all, he spent hardly illness, but the outcomes two hours in his new home. He left only a are disproportionately trace of his presence: a brown paper bag severe when the system stuffed with his medications. fails to help them. There do not appear to be any records of his whereabouts after that, meaning he likely was living on the street. On Jan. 15, he resurfaced underground. In the Times Square subway station that morning he walked up to 40-yearold Go, a stranger, and shoved her into the path of an incoming R train.
HOMELESS
CRISIS
BUCK ENNIS
BUSINESS AS USUAL: People sleeping on the street is a common sight in New York’s commercial corridors.
See NEGLECT on page 4
ENERGY & UTILITIES
Utility firms warn of 30% jump in heating bills this winter BY CAROLINE SPIVACK
T
he state’s largest utility company is warning customers to expect a spike in their energy bills this winter due to a surge in natural gas prices. Con Edison projects that city cus-
NEWSPAPER
VOL. 38, NO. 32
P001_CN_20220919.indd 1
tomers could pay an average of $460 a month on their heating bill from November to March, up from about $348 during the same time last year—a 32% jump. Supply costs are expected to account for $90 of the $112 increase, with delivery charges making up some $22, ac-
© 2022 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC.
cording to Con Edison’s figures. The company expects large commercial customers using 10,800 kilowatt hours per month to see an increase of $706, or a 28% jump, on their heating bill from an average of $2,524 last season to an estimated $3,230. Smaller commercial cus-
tomers who use 583 kilowatt hours monthly are estimated to see a $44 rise, from $194 last winter to $238, or a 23% spike. Con Edison by law must sell energy that it purchases at cost. The utility points the finger at the global energy crisis, fueled by the war in
Ukraine, shooting up already high natural gas costs for U.S. consumers. New Yorkers pay for those rising energy costs in their bill along with a rate set by the state Public Service Commission for use of the See HEAT on page 34
2022
BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
TURNING UNDERUSED SITES INTO BATTERY FARMS PAGE 35
PAGE 19
9/16/22 4:46 PM