NYC’s ‘ill-conceived’ plan to limit migrants to 60-day shelter off to disorganized start
New York City’s plan to limit adult migrants to 60-day stays in city-run shelters before they have to reapply was off to a disorganized start as Mayor Eric Adams said it was unclear if any of the approximately 55,000 asylum seekers in the city’s care had been served with notices yet.
The newly instituted plan came as the city was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people in the city’s 188 migrant shelters, and was for the benefit of the new arrivals, Adams claimed Monday.
“We just started the 60-days rule,” Hizzoner said, admitting he wasn’t sure how the program was working when questioned by The Post.
The rule would likely not be retroactively applied to adults who had already been staying in the shelter system, the mayor said.
“I’m not 100 percent sure how they’re going to handle those 60 days. I would be of a mindset that even if you were here for a month, that we’re just telling you it’s a 60-day. I don’t like changing the rules in the middle of the game.
“So I think the fair thing to do is to let everybody know these are the rules now. Sixty days, you have to reapply. There’s no guarantee on your reapplication,” Adams said.
City Councilwoman Diana Ayla (D-Harlem), chair of the Committee on General Welfare, said Monday she thought the plan was poorly thought out and would lead to “more people sleeping out in public spaces.”
“When we are creating policies and we need to anticipate the unintended consequences,” Ayla said.
“It’s rushed. You can tell that it’s rushed and ill-conceived and doesn’t consider the unintended consequences that folks might be outside on the streets with no food and no shelter,” she added.
“What’s going to happen is you’re going to end up denying people and if they’re found [ineligible] or there’s no beds, then it’s giving you permission to deny that bed. It’s not crystal clear right now,” the Democrat continued.
“They said you can reapply, but if you have no beds — then there’s no beds! Where is that person sleeping? They’re coming here without money, no resources. If they don’t have family here, what are we doing? They basically are just washing their hands of the situation and that’s serious.”
Adams countered that the city was planning on giving the migrants resources to find alternative housing before they were evicted from the shelter system.
“So we’re going to sit down, we’re giving everyone the 60 days, give them the intense support to land them an appropriate setting for them that’s fitting,” Adams said.
“Many people didn’t talk about the mother and wife who lost her spouse — her significant other, I don’t know if they were married or not — that committed suicide because of these conditions,” the mayor explained.
“And I went in, and I saw her, and I spoke with her. I saw the children. And this is real. So we need to get people in a suitable setting, he added.”
Families, who are largely being housed in hotels, would not be affected by the new guidelines, which were instituted as “about 2,500 [migrants] a week” arrive from the southern border, according to the mayor.
Some 90,000 people seeking US asylum from violence and failing governments had come through the five boroughs since last spring, Adams said.
“And so it’s not like, okay, let’s deal with this number and then, we can say, ‘Okay, we’re finished,'” he said.
“No. It’s just continuing. So the system must change, and our goal is to place people in the right setting, but this is not sustainable and we have to be honest about that.”
Adams has continuously said New York was bearing the brunt of the national migrant crisis, and has called on the Biden administration to reimburse the city for sheltering asylum seekers, which he estimates could cost as much as $4.5 billion.
The 60-day shelter limit came as City Hall pushed to suspend the city’s decades-old “right to shelter” mandate, which has been challenged by the Legal Aid Society, which says the end of the program would result in more people sleeping on the streets.
The case went before a Manhattan Supreme Court judge last week, who said the government and Legal Aid were trying to hash out a settlement ahead of an Aug. 16 court date.
