New York City has announced a plan to allow police and first responders to hospitalize homeless people experiencing severe mental illnesses.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams made the announcement at a news conference on Tuesday.

The move comes as the city has seen an increase in the number of homeless people to 60,000 partly due to the coronavirus pandemic. There have been calls for an immediate response to the situation.

The mayor said, "The very nature of their illnesses keeps them from realizing they need intervention and support." He said, "Without that intervention, they remain lost and isolated from society."

The mayor said the city has "a moral obligation to help them get the treatment and care they need."

The plan has drawn criticism from human rights advocates.

The American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement that "forcing people into treatment is a failed strategy for connecting people to long-term treatment and care."

It also said, "The decades-old practice of sweeping deep-seated problems out of public view may play well for the politicians, but the problems will persist."