The Seabrooks-Washington Community-Led Crisis Response Act was signed into law in January, but questions are being raised about why there’s been so little progress since then.
“We got a bill signed in January. Christmas will be here in two weeks and nothing has gotten done. If they had followed their own guidelines, we should be close to implementation in a very real way,” said Zayid Muhammed, of ACLU-NJ.
The law, which appropriates $12 million to community response teams in six counties as a pilot program, would allow existing community-based organizations to launch crisis response teams. But no funds have yet been awarded.
“The communities have been identified, the parties and grantees have been identified, the process of putting together an advisory board to oversee best practices and some real standards, that’s not rocket science,” Muhammed said.
The law was named in part for Andrew Washington, who was shot and killed by Jersey City police in August 2023, after his family called the hospital for help during a mental health crisis. Washington’s aunt, Doris Toni Ervin, said she thought the state would have done more since January, in her nephew’s name.
“I thought it would be that funding would go towards programs and people more supportive to the mental health community — but on the ground level, where if someone is having an episode, or a family member is experiencing that, they have someone to talk to, someone that can come out and talk to their loved one.”
The law also calls for the creation of a community advisory council, to which only five of 13 appointments have been made.
