www.nytimes.com Open in urlscan Pro
151.101.129.164  Public Scan

URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/10/nyregion/nyc-right-to-shelter-migrants.html
Submission: On May 11 via manual from US — Scanned from US

Form analysis 1 forms found in the DOM

POST https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/10/nyregion/nyc-right-to-shelter-migrants.html&apn=com.nytimes.android&amv=9837&ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&isi=284862083

<form method="post" action="https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/10/nyregion/nyc-right-to-shelter-migrants.html&amp;apn=com.nytimes.android&amp;amv=9837&amp;ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&amp;isi=284862083"
  data-testid="MagicLinkForm" style="visibility: hidden;"><input name="client_id" type="hidden" value="web.fwk.vi"><input name="redirect_uri" type="hidden"
    value="https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/10/nyregion/nyc-right-to-shelter-migrants.html&amp;apn=com.nytimes.android&amp;amv=9837&amp;ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&amp;isi=284862083"><input name="response_type"
    type="hidden" value="code"><input name="state" type="hidden" value="no-state"><input name="scope" type="hidden" value="default"></form>

Text Content

Skip to content

Sections
SEARCH
New York

SUBSCRIBE FOR $1/WEEKLog in
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Today’s Paper
SUBSCRIBE FOR $1/WEEK
New York|Adams Weakens Right-to-Shelter Rules, Anticipating Migrant Surge

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/10/nyregion/nyc-right-to-shelter-migrants.html
 * Give this article
 * 
 * 

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story



Supported by

Continue reading the main story





ADAMS WEAKENS RIGHT-TO-SHELTER RULES, ANTICIPATING MIGRANT SURGE

Saying New York City had “reached our limit,” the Adams administration said it
would loosen regulations that have protected homeless families seeking shelter.

 * Send any friend a story
   
   As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can
   read what you share.
   
   
   Give this article
 * 
 * 
 * Read in app
   


New York City has placed newly arrived migrants in hotels, and even tents, as it
struggles with a deepening homelessness problem.Credit...Jeenah Moon for The New
York Times


By Emma G. Fitzsimmons and Andy Newman

May 10, 2023Updated 10:32 p.m. ET

New York City is temporarily suspending some of the rules related to its
longstanding guarantee of shelter to anyone who needs it as officials struggle
to find housing for migrants arriving from the southern border.

Under an executive order, the city is suspending rules that require families to
be placed in private rooms with bathrooms and kitchens, not in group settings,
and that set a nightly deadline for newly arriving families to be placed in
shelters.

A spokesman for Mayor Eric Adams confirmed the decision on Wednesday night,
saying that the city had “reached our limit” and ended up having to place newly
arrived migrants in gyms last week.

“This is not a decision taken lightly,” the spokesman, Fabien Levy, said in a
statement, “and we will make every effort to get asylum seekers into shelter as
quickly as possible, as we have done since Day 1.”



Advertisement

Continue reading the main story



Republican governors of border states have been sending buses of asylum seekers
to New York and other Democrat-led cities since last spring, but the city’s
decision came as a federal pandemic-era rule that allowed the government to
eject thousands of migrants, known as Title 42, is set to expire Thursday night.
City officials have said they expect as many as 1,000 people a day to come after
the rule is lifted.

Sign up for the New York Today Newsletter  Each morning, get the latest on New
York businesses, arts, sports, dining, style and more. Get it sent to your
inbox.

Already people have been crossing into the United States from Mexico in
anticipation of the change.

New York City has opened eight humanitarian relief centers as city officials
have moved to help more than 61,000 migrants who have arrived over the last
year.

New York is the only major city in the country that provides “right to shelter,”
the result of a legal agreement that requires the city to provide a bed to
anyone who needs one under certain conditions.



“We all hope that they never have to take any actions that would be in violation
of these rules that they’re suspending,” said Joshua Goldfein, a staff lawyer
for the Legal Aid Society, which represents the nonprofit that is the
court-appointed monitor for the shelter system, the Coalition for the Homeless.

Under the nightly-deadline rule, homeless families with children who arrive at a
shelter-system office by 10 p.m. must be given beds in a shelter the same night.
Last July, as the number of migrants was accelerating, some families spent the
night in chairs at the main office in the Bronx; it was the first time the
nightly deadline had been violated since at least 2014.



Advertisement

Continue reading the main story



“We know that they are working hard to avoid putting people in harm’s way,” Mr.
Goldfein said, “but we have learned over and over again that putting families
with children in congregate settings or leaving them in city offices for days on
end is dangerous and harmful to children and their families.”

The city is also suspending protections for families who have been in emergency
shelter hotels for more than 30 days, which officials say make it impossible to
evict them without taking them to housing court.

Mr. Goldfein pushed back against that suspension, saying, “They want the ability
to turn off their key cards and lock them out,” as the city did earlier this
year to families who had been staying in a Lower Manhattan hotel since being
displaced by Hurricane Ida in 2021.

As of Tuesday, there were 78,763 people in the city’s main shelter system, a
record that has been broken nearly every day since October. Nearly half of them
are migrants, the city says, spread among 120 emergency shelters and the eight
larger centers.

Mr. Adams has said that housing the migrants is costing the city billions of
dollars, warning last month that the city is “being destroyed” by the crisis and
criticizing President Biden for his handling of the situation.



Advertisement

Continue reading the main story



Still, the city is mandated by the longstanding legal settlement to observe the
right to shelter, and Mr. Adams is likely to face criticism over his decision to
reduce some of the protections. The right to shelter, rooted in court cases
launched in 1979, is one reason New York City doesn’t have the same level of
street homelessness as some cities in California and elsewhere.

Mr. Levy, the mayoral spokesman, said that the city was doing the best it could
under difficult circumstances, “but without more support from our federal and
state partners, we are concerned the worst may be yet to come.”

Raúl Vilchis contributed reporting.







Advertisement

Continue reading the main story




SITE INDEX




SITE INFORMATION NAVIGATION

 * © 2023 The New York Times Company

 * NYTCo
 * Contact Us
 * Accessibility
 * Work with us
 * Advertise
 * T Brand Studio
 * Your Ad Choices
 * Privacy Policy
 * Terms of Service
 * Terms of Sale
 * Site Map
 * Canada
 * International
 * Help
 * Subscriptions



Enjoy unlimited access to all of The Times.

See subscription options