After attempting to roll back the so-called right to shelter rule following a massive influx of migrants, New York City has reached an agreement with the Legal Aid Society that will enable the city to limit stays in shelters for some adult migrants for 30 days without offering them a chance to reapply.
A longstanding debate over the city’s right to shelter rule entered court-supervised negotiations last year, with talks lasting 10 months between the city, state and Legal Aid Society, which represents people living in shelters. The new settlement relieves the city of certain obligations to shelter childless adult migrants during the existing state of migrants emergency.
According to two sources familiar with the agreement, not all adult migrants seeking to stay in city-run shelters past 30 days will be given the ability to reapply — as current policy has allowed for months — except under a pair of narrow circumstances.
The two conditions are said to allow a shelter extension if a migrant is disabled, or has an “extenuating circumstance,” the sources outlined. The parameters of the latter rule are expected to be more clearly defined after the settlement becomes public.
The agreement also provides more time for young adult migrants navigating the city’s shelter system. The sources said young adults, under the age of 23, will get 60 days to stay in city-run shelters before reaching a move-out deadline.
The city is also expected to continue offering migrants bus and plane tickets to enable them to travel to other cities in an effort to reduce the city’s migrant burden.
Judge Gerald Lebovits supervised the negotiations over the past five months, and on Friday called the settlement “good for the city and the people of New York.”
Since last May, the Adams administration has sought to roll back the right to shelter rules following the arrival of tens of thousands migrants. Most have arrived without a certain path to jobs, forcing the city to create more than 200 emergency shelters and provide numerous other government services, with a cost the administration estimates of $12 billion over the next few years.
The right to shelter has been in place for more than four decades in New York, after a court in 1981 required the city to provide temporary housing for every homeless person who asks for it. Other big U.S. cities don’t have such a rule.
The city is still trying to get out from under its right to shelter laws. Melissa Russo reports.
Melissa Russo and Anthony Izaguirre
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