Mayor Adams’ team is framing its deal with Legal Aid Society on migrant shelter policy as a win; in fact, it kneecaps the city’s ability to address the migrant crisis and further legitimatizes the absurd “right to shelter.”
Last May, the mayor asked the courts to allow a suspension of some city “right to shelter” obligations, rightly arguing, “New York City cannot single-handedly provide care to everyone crossing our border.”
But since the “right” is the product of a decades-old court settlement, the city had to negotiate with the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless — unelected not-for-profits that only stay afloat thanks to taxpayer money, raking in millions every year from grants, contracts and other government largesse.
The “charities” balked at the idea of ending unchecked, conditions-free housing for every migrant who comes to town, and the Adams team blinked, settling not for half a loaf but for barely a few crumbs.
The settlement announced Friday confirms that all migrants can reapply for housing after their 30- or 60-day initial stay in city shelters ends.
Families with children, who make up 78% of migrants coming to New York, face no requirements for reapplying after getting their 60-day notices.
The deal makes it a bit tougher for single adults (overwhelming men), but lists a smorgasbord of “extenuating circumstances” that the city must consider before actually saying “no”: Extension-eligible are those who “make significant efforts to resettle,” including “seeking an appointment with an immigration legal services provider” (like Legal Aid), “searching for alternate housing,” “applying for public assistance benefits” and “following shelter rules,” plus all claiming a disability or to be recovering from a “serious medical procedure.”
The agreement also requires the city 1) to operate “drop-in style centers” that provide “nutritionally adequate meals” to all single adult migrants who “reject offers” of more permanent shelters or those “who arrive late at night” or “request a place to stay indoors,” but also 2) to end use of these temporary shelters to accommodate overflow while migrants are waiting for longer-term shelters.
With 183,000 illegal migrants flooding into the city since 2022, and some 64,000 still “in the city’s care,” “asylum seekers” are sleeping in tents and bunking in illegal private hostels.
But the progressives at Legal Aid and the Coalition insisted on a deal that still pretends the city has unlimited resources, and the mayor’s team went along despite his insistence that New York City is at capacity.
Apparently, it’s too much to ask city government to actually face the facts.