ADAMS NIXES SHELTER LAW
Suspends regs ahead of expected migrant surge
Mayor Adams has signed an executive order suspending portions of the city’s longstanding right-to-shelter law — a dramatic move that comes as New York braces for the local migrant crisis to worsen, an attorney briefed on the matter told the Daily News late Wednesday.
The attorney, Josh Goldfein of the Legal Aid Society, said he was told by Department of Social Services officials that Adams signed the order to prepare for Friday’s expiration of Title 42, a federal border policy that has allowed authorities to quickly expel many migrants who enter the U.S. from Mexico. Once that policy lifts, Adams has said the clip of migrant arrivals will likely accelerate, even as the city is already housing more than 38,000 asylum seekers in shelters and emergency hotels.
The text of the executive order was not immediately available.
But according to Goldfein, the provisions being suspended are a rule requiring the city to secure shelter beds for families with children by a certain time; a prohibition on placing families with children in congregate settings, and a rule regarding unlawful evictions.
Goldfein said he was told Adams issued the order without the intention of immediately flouting right-to-shelter rules.
“They are saying, ‘We have to be ready in case we do need to do that.’ We appreciate the heads-up ... but it’d be very concerning if they actually tried to [violate right-to-shelter rules],” Goldfein told The News, adding that Legal Aid may take court action if that happens.
In a statement after news of the executive order broke, Adams spokesman Fabien Levy confirmed the mayor is suspending “the policy surrounding timing for placements in shelters,” but did not address the other provisions at issue.
“This is not a decision taken lightly, and we will make every effort to get asylum seekers into shelters as quickly as possible as we have done since day one,” Levy said, adding that the administration has “reached our limit, and we have no other option but to temporarily house recent arrivals in gyms.”
The spokesman also took a new shot at President Biden and Gov. Hochul, who have faced increasingly intense criticism from the mayor for not doing more to help the city deal with the migrant crisis.
“Without more support from our federal and state partners, we are concerned the worst may be yet to come,” he said.
At its root, the decades-old law requires the city to provide a bed in a shelter for anyone who needs it. The law also contains certain specific provisions that have to do with housing conditions and the timeliness of shelter placement.
Adams’ order focuses on suspending three provisions of the law, according to Goldfein.
The first provision targeted by the order requires the city to secure shelter beds for any families with children by 4 a.m. if they arrive at an intake center by 10 p.m. the previous day.
As the migrant crisis began to deepen last summer, Adams’ administration admitted it violated that right-to-shelter rule when it failed to find beds for multiple Latin American migrant families in a timely manner, forcing them to sleep on the floor of an intake center in the Bronx.
By suspending the rule, the administration would not break the law if it fails to find beds by the 4 a.m. deadline.
The second portion of the law that’s being lifted by Adams’ order has to do with a prohibition on placing families with children in congregate settings.
Though he cautioned he hasn’t seen the text of the order, Goldfein said he was told the order would allow the city to put families with kids in congregate, dorm-style shelters.
Earlier this week, The News exclusively reported the Adams administration has already placed some migrant families with kids in a congregate setting — drawing outrage from advocates who say that practice increases the risk of sexual abuse and violence against children.
“Certainly we’ve been clear that it is never appropriate to put families with children in congregate settings and if that is something that they will try to do that will be a big problem for us,” Goldfein said.
The last provision facing suspension under Adams’ order has to do with unlawful evictions. Goldfein said he did not get an extensive briefing on what exactly the order will do on that front, but he raised concern it might give the city power to kick people out of dwellings they’ve maintained residency in without proper eviction proceedings and due process.
The right-to-shelter law dates back to the 1970s and is the foundation for the city’s homeless shelter system.
Goldfein said no previous mayor has ever told Legal Aid, which serves as the city’s de facto right-to-shelter watchdog, that he intends to peel back portions of the law.
“They’ve never said to us that we have such an emergency right now that we have to do this,” he said.