SHOUT Statement on Resignation of Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan

The resignation of Ashwin Vasan as commissioner of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) reflects a missed opportunity for real progress toward adequate services for New York’s supportive housing applicants and tenants.

Like so much of what we have seen with the Adams administration, Vasan was appointed with optimistic and vastly exaggerated hyperbole about what would happen under his leadership. Vasan’s appointment as DOHMH commissioner after years of working in and adjacent to supportive housing as the Executive Director of Fountain House brought supportive housing tenants hope–ultimately unrealized–for an administration that would truly listen and respond to their needs. 

Two and a half years after his appointment, Mr. Vasan’s record as commissioner tells a different story. During his tenure, Vasan paid little attention toward improving services for supportive housing applicants or tenants, while providing a sort of politicized “medical” smoke screen for some of Mayor Adams’ most regressive policies, like homeless sweeps and the expansion of involuntary removals. 

Indeed, some experienced the failures of NYC’s supportive housing system through homeless sweeps - instead of housing, they were swept, their personal property was treated as trash and tossed it into DSNY garbage trucks, DHS and contracted non-profit outreach teams said "there's shelter," and NYPD officers - always strapped with a side arm - told them to "move on."

Vasan also stayed quiet, at least publicly, as Mayor Adams mandated cuts year over year to DOHMH’s budget. 

During Vasan’s tenure and in contrast to the previous administration, DOHMH has consistently refused to meet with supportive housing tenants and advocates, and has failed to take accountability for the lack of oversight and deplorable conditions in supportive housing in NYC. 

Among other noticeable failings, DOHMH repeatedly neglected to take agency action to address mass-evictions of its contracted service providers for failure to pay rent—resulting in some cases in judgments and warrants of evictions against supportive housing tenants, through no fault of their own-–even after advocates repeatedly flagged to DOHMH’s Office of Housing Services over the course of a full year. Moreover, Vasan stayed silent after Gothamist and the New York Times - as a result of SHOUT’s work - exposed that some of the City’s largest supportive housing landlords/providers were filing hundreds of eviction cases against disabled tenants. shifting their casework obligations onto the housing courts.

DOHMH has also fallen short of its obligations under Local Law 15, including taking over 18 months to revise its template “Tenants Notice of Rights” document to accurately reflect local and state housing laws (after committing to do so), and failing to establish a meaningful oversight and enforcement system to ensure compliance with the local legislation.

The same bureaucrats that are closely aligned with the supportive housing industry and who had power under the last administration have acted as if they have even more power under Mayor Adams and Commissioner Vasan.

In sum, Vasan’s tenure - in contrast to the congratulatory tone of echo-chamber officials all around him - has been a massive let down. Like so much of the Adams administration, rhetoric of “care” was used to legitimize regressive municipal policies and leave the worst of the status quo in place.

SHOUT hopes that whoever steps up as the new health commissioner can begin a genuine working relationship with the people of NYC and can begin the process of improving supportive housing and holding providers accountable.