Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed a longtime behavioral health leader on Tuesday to serve as commissioner of his newly created Office of Community Safety, filling a key post in an office already facing pressure from advocates over its authority, funding and structure.
Dr. Ayesha Delany-Brumsey will report to Deputy Mayor for Community Safety Renita Francois, whom Mamdani appointed in March when he created the office by executive order.
The office has been cast as an initial step toward Mamdani’s campaign pledge of creating a $1.1 billion city agency, but for now is intended to coordinate several existing city functions, including crime victim services, gun violence prevention, domestic and gender-based violence prevention, hate crime prevention, community mental health and crisis response programs such as B-HEARD.
Delany-Brumsey currently serves as senior advisor and director of community-based services in the Office of Behavioral Health at NYC Health + Hospitals. City Hall said she has overseen citywide behavioral health programming, including mobile crisis teams and B-HEARD. She previously worked at Fountain House, the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice under Bill de Blasio, the Council of State Governments Justice Center and the Vera Institute of Justice.
The appointment comes a day after a coalition of 47 organizations sent Mamdani and Francois a letter calling for the new office to receive investments in services, meaningful authority over the NYPD and binding commitments for change.
The coalition said the mayor’s executive budget, due May 12, could offer a clearer picture of the office’s direction after it was left out of the preliminary budget in February.
The groups urged the administration to build non-police crisis response teams, change 911, 311 and 988 triage and dispatch systems, and invest in services including Intensive Mobile Treatment teams, crisis stabilization centers, respite centers, community-based behavioral health services and low-barrier housing.
The Legal Aid Society welcomed Delany-Brumsey’s appointment, saying her background in behavioral health, crisis response and criminal legal system reform positions her to help advance a model rooted in care and prevention rather than criminalization.
“For too long, New Yorkers experiencing homelessness, mental health crises, and substance abuse have been met first by law enforcement, often with tragic outcomes — particularly in low-income communities and communities of color. The work ahead for the Office of Community Safety must focus on changing that reality by building robust, community-based responses that de-escalate crises, connect people to services, and reduce harm,” the organization said in a statement.
The office has also recently drawn concern from some domestic violence advocates after The New York Times reported that the new structure could diminish the standing of the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence.
Asked Monday about those concerns, Mamdani said that work is “critically important” to his administration and argued that the Office of Community Safety is meant to bring previously fragmented parts of city government into one coordinated structure, including domestic and gender-based violence work, mental health crisis response and gun violence prevention.