A group of NYPD cops, outreach workers and a registered nurse gathered at the Herald Square subway station about 8 p.m. last Wednesday, kicking off a graveyard shift for a controversial unit tasked with removing homeless people with severe mental health needs from New York City’s subway system.

The group is one of five teams that are part of the city’s Partnership Assistance for Transit Homelessness program, or PATH. The initiative launched under Mayor Eric Adams in response to a rise in people turning to the subways for shelter following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the PATH teams launched in August 2024, the Adams administration has credited them with drastically reducing the number of people with mental illness living in the subways. The mayor’s office said police are c

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