Settlement reached over 'Right to Shelter' law in New York City

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The legal agreement between New York City and homeless advocates scales back the decades-old 'Right to Shelter' law as the city tries to find housing for thousands of migrant adults.

The terms of the settlement ease the burden on city shelters by limiting adult migrants to stays of no more than 30 days, the city said.

Families with children would not be affected and some adults would be allowed to stay longer if they meet certain conditions.

The Right to Shelter law became a target because, Mayor Eric Adams had argued, the city has been pushed to brink financially because of the influx of asylum seekers.

In announcing the settlement, Adams said the city's shelter system had fewer than 2,500 people in its care when the law went into effect compared to the 120,000 people today. More than half of them are migrants.

Homeless advocates pushed back, saying thousands of New Yorkers would be denied shelter as a result and New Yorkers would start to see more encampments on the streets.

The settlement comes after months of negotiations between city officials and the Legal Aid Society, representing homeless advocates.

The new rules are temporary, as they will only exist as long as the migrant crisis continues and apply only to new arrivals who are single adults.

The agreement preserves the underlying 1981 Right to Shelter consent decree and prevents the government from automatically denying shelter to any group of people if they have no other place to go. It guarantees the Right to Shelter for anyone - longer-term New Yorkers and new arrivals alike - while ensuring the City's compliance with multiple court orders and existing law.

"This settlement safeguards the right to shelter in the consent decree, ensuring single adults' - both long-time New Yorkers and new arrivals - access to shelter, basic necessities and case management to transition from shelter to housing in the community," said Adriene Holder, Chief Attorney of the Civil Practice at The Legal Aid Society.. "It also requires the City to immediately eliminate the use of waiting rooms as shelters where new arrivals have been sleeping on chairs and floors while they wait for shelter placement."

Mayor Adams said the settlement "grants us additional flexibility during times of crisis, like the national humanitarian crisis we are currently experiencing."

He said the settlement gives New York City additional tools to address the crisis while ensuring that the most vulnerable can continue to receive the support they need.

"Like impacted cities across the country, we cannot bear the brunt of this crisis alone and continue to seek significant support from our federal partners, including expedited work authorizations, more funding, and a national resettlement strategy," Adams said.

Nearly 190,000 migrants have passed through the city's shelter system since the spring of 2022.

Under the new rules, younger adult migrants, between the ages of 18 and 23, can stay up to 60 days in the shelter system before having to move out.

NYC homeless shelter population surges 53% during migrant crisis: mayor’s report

The number of homeless people in New York City’s shelter system skyrocketed 53% over the past year — driven by the unrelenting surge of migrants, according to Mayor Eric Adams’s preliminary management report released Tuesday.

The report compares data and performance of city agencies for the first four months of the fiscal year — July through October of 2023 — with the same period in 2022.

“During the first four months of Fiscal 2024, the average number of individuals in shelter per day increased by 53 percent compared to the same period in Fiscal 2023, driven by the unprecedented increase in entrants, primarily asylum seekers who made up over half of all entrants during the period,” the Department of Homeless Services said its quarterly assessment of its shelter system included in the 432-page report.

There was an average of 83,985 people in city-run shelters per day during the quarterly period compared to 54,738 individuals in 2022.

“The flow of asylum seekers to New York City drove a 147 percent increase in entries to shelter for families with children and a 185 percent increase in entries to shelter for adult families,” the report said.

The number of homeless people in New York City’s shelter system skyrocketed 53% over the past year.Robert Miller

Meanwhile, the average length of stay in shelters dropped by about 29 percent for families with children, and childless families and 10 percent for single adults compared to the same period a year ago.

Mayor Adams announced a 60-day limit in shelters for individuals in July and reduced it to 30 days in September to provide relief to the stressed system — though the report doesn’t explicitly cite the time restrictions as spurring the shorter stays.

DHS said the sheer increase in migrants led to a “larger proportion” of shelter residents exiting the system sooner.

The city has opened more than 210 emergency shelter sites to house more than 170,700 migrants during the border crisis now entering its third year, according to officials.

The report compares data and performance of city agencies for the first four months of the fiscal year — July through October of 2023 — with the same period in 2022.Robert Miller

More than 100 hotels have been converted into emergency shelters, at an estimated cost topping $1 billion.

The massive report details numerous ways city agencies have responded to help the waves of asylum-seekers, and how the crisis has impacted services.

The city’s public hospital system reported that enrollment in NYC Care — the free and low-cost city-run medical insurance program started by former Mayor Bill de Blasio to provide care for undocumented immigrants and others who are uninsured — shot up 16%, from 105,070 to 121,478 from a year ago.

“Some asylum seekers are qualifying for the program,” the report said.

Health+ Hospitals attributed much of the increase in enrollees to pregnant moms seeking prenatal care, including recently arrived migrants.

“The increase in late prenatal care registrants and accompanying increase in the number of deliveries from the end of Calendar 2022 to 2023, reflects the time period when there was an increase in the number of asylum seekers arriving to NYC,” the agency said.

“Historically, immigrant communities may arrive late in their third trimester, having had prenatal care in their home country. OBGYN care, especially pregnancy-related care, was a common need among asylum seekers.”

NYC to include migrants in annual street homelessness census

NYC migrants spotted sleeping outside will be counted as part of the city’s annual street homelessness census this month, according to Adams administration officials.

The so-called HOPE Count, which was set to be conducted Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, involves city outreach workers and volunteers fanning across the five boroughs to tally how many individuals are sleeping on the streets. The tally is reported to the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department and used to assess how much federal funding the city should get for operating homeless shelters.

In a Tuesday afternoon briefing, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom confirmed that newly arrived migrants — dozens of whom have been spotted sleeping outside a Manhattan intake center in recent weeks amid overcrowding in local shelters — will be included in the HOPE Count. She said the city has 1,500 New Yorkers signed up to volunteer for the count, a number she called “fantastic.”

However, asked by the Daily News after the briefing if she expects a bump in federal homeless aid as a result of an increase in the HOPE Count, Williams-Isom demurred.To date, the feds have provided less than $500 million — an amount Adams has characterized as a drop in the bucket when compared with the hundreds of millions of dollars the city says it’s spending every month on housing and providing services for migrants.

According to the latest data from Adams’ office, nearly 70,000 migrants remain housed in city shelters. The city has shelled out more than $3 billion on housing, feeding and providing them with services since the crisis started in spring 2022, Adams administration officials say.

Shelter Evictions Will Damage Migrant Children, Schools Warn

About 3,500 migrant families in New York City shelters have received eviction notices. Children will have to change schools or face long commutes.

Since last summer, tens of thousands of migrant families living in homeless shelters have enrolled children in New York City schools. Their arrival buoyed the system, which had been losing students, prompting the mayor to declare that “public schools are back.”

But now, the city is forcing many of those families to reapply for shelter beds, threatening what educators say is a hard-fought and fragile stability for migrant children, many of whom endured upheaval and trauma on their journey to America.

But more than two dozen principals, educators, parents and advocates said in interviews that the policy could lead to the biggest disruption since schools closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

As the eviction notices go into effect next month, the migrant families will face a difficult choice: Stay in the same school, which could mean a long commute if they’re placed in a distant shelter, or transfer to a new school and start from scratch.

Either way, the upheaval is likely to be painful for both students and schools, educators and experts say.

Homeless families have a federal right to keep their children enrolled in the same school when they move, in part because midyear transfers can be devastating to students, interrupting academic progress and relationships formed with teachers and friends.

But more than two dozen principals, educators, parents and advocates said in interviews that the policy could lead to the biggest disruption since schools closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

As the eviction notices go into effect next month, the migrant families will face a difficult choice: Stay in the same school, which could mean a long commute if they’re placed in a distant shelter, or transfer to a new school and start from scratch.

Either way, the upheaval is likely to be painful for both students and schools, educators and experts say.

Homeless families have a federal right to keep their children enrolled in the same school when they move, in part because midyear transfers can be devastating to students, interrupting academic progress and relationships formed with teachers and friends.

But more than two dozen principals, educators, parents and advocates said in interviews that the policy could lead to the biggest disruption since schools closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

As the eviction notices go into effect next month, the migrant families will face a difficult choice: Stay in the same school, which could mean a long commute if they’re placed in a distant shelter, or transfer to a new school and start from scratch.

Either way, the upheaval is likely to be painful for both students and schools, educators and experts say.

Homeless families have a federal right to keep their children enrolled in the same school when they move, in part because midyear transfers can be devastating to students, interrupting academic progress and relationships formed with teachers and friends.

On Thursday, elected officials — including the city comptroller, public advocate and a third of the members of the City Council — demanded a reversal of the policy in a letter to Mr. Adams.

“I can’t stop thinking about the trauma this is going to cause,” said Rosa Diaz, a parent leader whose East Harlem district has received thousands of migrant students.

A court order requires the city to provide a bed to any homeless person who asks for one, and Mayor Adams has repeatedly cautioned that New York cannot handle the costs of housing and caring for migrants.

Over 157,000 migrants have arrived since last year, and more than 67,000 are now in shelters. Officials say the 60-day time limits are meant to help clear space. In September, the city placed 30-day limits on shelter stays for single adult migrants, and most did not reapply for placements when their time was up.

But in recent weeks, dozens of adults who are reapplying have slept on sidewalks in frigid conditions as they wait for beds. Critics of the 60-day plan have raised the specter of similar scenes playing out for families with young children this winter.

Mr. Adams has said he hopes to avoid having families sleep on the street.

“If they say don’t do the 60-day rule, give me an alternative. Because we’ve been open to ideas,” he said this week.

The 60-day policy does not yet apply to families living at many shelters, where the city requires state waivers to distribute eviction notices. But starting next month, families living in several emergency shelters are expected to pack up and leave to reapply for housing at the Roosevelt Hotel intake center in Midtown.

The school system is split into 32 local districts, and officials have said they will try to place families in, or near, their youngest child’s district.

The new shelter plan is setting off a chaotic scramble in parts of the school system. At one Brooklyn school, teachers hugged some of their students goodbye for winter break, uncertain whether they would return in the New Year. In Queens, a principal worried that children who had finally begun trusting school staff would again be thrown into turmoil.

At Brooklyn RISE, a charter school in Downtown Brooklyn, teachers have welcomed more than 30 migrant children this fall. The students have become “such a part of the community,” said Cary Finnegan, the school’s founder.

They initially greeted their teachers every day with “buenos dias!” Lately, it’s been “good morning,” staff members said. As families began receiving eviction notices, school leaders and social workers called one city official after another, trying to find out what might unfold.

“I just can’t think of a worse time to do this,” Ms. Finnegan said.

Amaris Cockfield, a mayoral spokeswoman, said in a statement that the administration has been warning that “this crisis could play out on city streets” without additional help. “We have been national leaders, but, simply put, we’re out of good options,” Ms. Cockfield said.

Outside the Row NYC hotel this week, several migrant parents said they and their children were losing sleep. Most had received little to no information on what to do when they reach the 60-day limit.

One father, Jose Gregorio Leal, 35, had kept his family’s notice from his wife who has a heart condition. A mother, Luz Rodriguez, 35, said she watched shelter staff toss migrants’ belongings into black trash bags and place them outside. She fears the same thing could happen to her family.

Some migrant families left the shelter system in recent weeks, doubling up in apartments. Others have departed for different states, school leaders said. Many migrants described disillusionment after arriving with great hopes for their lives in New York.

“Imagine that, 60 days at one site and 60 days at another,” said Luisa Castillo, 47, whose two public school children are “really anxious” over the disruption. “They’re never going to learn.”

By Troy Closson and Liset Cruz


One in nine NYC students was homeless last year, analysis says By Jillian Jorgensen New York City

One in nine New York City students experienced homelessness last school year.

“Students who are homeless in New York City could fill Barclays Center six times,” Randi Levine, policy director of Advocates for Children, said.

It’s a record high, according to an analysis from Advocates for Children: 119,320 students experienced homelessness during the last school year.

Of them, 40,840 stayed in shelters, 72,500 were doubled up — sharing someone else’s housing, and about 5,900 students lived in hotels, motels, or were unsheltered.

It’s an increase of 14% over the prior year. That growth has been fueled by the surge of migrants coming to the city — but schools were already serving a huge number of homeless students before their arrival.

“The last school year was the eighth consecutive year in which more than 100,000 New York City students experienced homelessness,” Levine said.

Every district served homeless children last year — but some saw more than others. In Bronx District 9, Brooklyn Districts 23 and 32, and Manhattan’s District 4, one in every five students was homeless last year.

“When we look at educational indicators, they are particularly abysmal for students living in shelter,” Levine said. “And that’s why we think it’s so important to make sure that the Department of Education has staff who are particularly looking out for students in shelter.”

The city hired 100 coordinators to work directly with families in shelter — but they’re now being stretched thin, and the funding used to hire them expires in less than a year. Meanwhile, more than 100 new shelters have opened without any public school staff to support them — even though the federal government has provided funding that can only be used for homeless students, and must be spent or returned by next October.

“That funding is available now. There’s a tremendous need right now. And the Department of Education actually has some temporary staff members who they’ve interviewed and are ready to start their work right now. But we’re seeing bureaucratic hurdles get in the way of the Department of Education getting that final green light,” Levine said.

In a statement, an education department spokeswoman said students experiencing homelessness were among the city’s most vulnerable, and a priority for the school system. 

“We are grateful for the federal stimulus dollars that have allowed us to establish critical supports for our students and families affected by homelessness, including the shelter-based coordinators that were hired and who have directly supported families within our shelter system,” Jenna Lyle, spokeswoman, said.

“Although stimulus funding is expiring, ensuring continued support for these student populations remains essential,” the statement continued.

Lyle cited the city’s change to the Fair Student Funding Formula, which now provides more money to schools serving students in temporary housing, and the hiring of school-based staff who work directly with students experiencing homelessness and whose positions are funded in the budget. 

But there was no mention of any specific plans on how to fund the jobs of the shelter-based DOE coordinators once the stimulus money dries up.

“Moving forward, we will continue to work with our partners at the city and state levels to identify and establish supports for our students in temporary housing, while contending with the city’s financial reality,” Lyle said.

PUBLISHED 6:00 AM ET Nov. 01, 2023

6 Formerly Homeless Black Siblings From NYC Are All Now Becoming Nurses

Six sisters, the Lawrence siblings from New York City, are now on their journey to fulfill their dreams of becoming nurses together after facing nearly a decade of being homeless.

In 2013, the sisters’ parents, David and Yonette, lost their home in Queens, New York City. From then on, their family moved from one relative or friend’s house to another, they toldPeople.

“It was challenging,” said 24-year-old Lauren. “There were a lot of very bumpy, depressing times.”

Two years into this hardship, their father decided he didn’t want their situation to hinder their education. The sisters, who had been struggling to attend school due to constant moves, enrolled in a homeschool program with hopes of earning their GED.

“He didn’t want what we were going through to hold us back,” said 25-year-old Dominique.

Indeed, the Lawrence sisters defied the odds. In 2019, all six earned their GEDs. They then attended Nassau Community College and later graduated from SUNY Old Westbury with bachelor’s degrees in public health in May.

“It’s been quite an adventure,” said 22-year-old Danielle. “But what really pulled us through is our faith in God and in each other.”

These siblings, now aged 19 to 25, said they are just getting started. In August, they began a master’s program in public health at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University and plan to attend nursing school afterward.

Moreover, their father is very proud of his daughters who made their dream come true despite all the challenges of their uncertain childhood.

“I’m so happy they they’ve done this together,” said David. “I always tell them, ‘Life’s not fair. And when it throws you a curveball, you gotta adjust to it and keep going.'”


What to Know About the Migrant Crisis in New York City

By Hurubie Meko

Sept. 28, 2023

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As of late September, more than 118,800 migrants had arrived in New York City since the spring of 2022.

Officials have struggled to respond as people from all over the world have arrived, sometimes by the hundreds each week. Many have sought shelter with the city, which has a legal obligation to give beds to anyone who asks. Last fall, the city’s homeless shelter population hit a record. It has only grown since then.

Mayor Eric Adams has called it a humanitarian crisis that will cost the city about $12 billion over three years. In the fall, he declared a state of emergency. In recent weeks, city officials have said they are running out of room.

The mayor has repeatedly asked the federal government — and has even traveled to Washington — for more funds and for expedited work authorizations for migrants, so they can become self-sufficient. He has said that President Biden has “failed” the city by not doing more.

“While New York City will continue to lead, it’s time the state and federal government step up,” Mr. Adams said at a recent news conference.

As the city struggles to respond to the arrival of over 100,000 new migrants, Mr. Adams has also begun to discourage migrants from seeking refuge in New York City.

Why are large numbers of migrants coming to New York City now?

Many arrivals to New York City last year were Venezuelans who had entered through the southern border. More than seven million refugees and migrants had left Venezuela, a country of 29 million people, as of February, according to Response for Venezuelans, a joint effort between the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. It’s the second largest external displacement crisis in the world, according to the U.N. commission.

Economists said that Venezuela’s economic decline has been among the most drastic they have seen, other than in war. The country’s finances have teetered under an authoritarian socialist government. In 2019, the Trump administration also imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned oil company as a way to cripple the administration of President Nicolás Maduro — a strategy that was briefly eased under Presid

About seven million Venezuelans have left home. While most stay in Latin America, more have set out for the United States in recent months.Credit...Federico Rios for The New York Times

The vast majority of Venezuelans are staying in other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. But many have been making the long and dangerous trip to the United States in recent months. About 100 Venezuelans were apprehended annually at the border between 2015 and 2018. More than 150,000 were apprehended between October 2021 and the end of August 2022.

More recently, a large number of migrants have also been coming from countries in Africa.

After crossing the southern border, thousands have made their way to New York with the help of officials in Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott has sent thousands in a campaign to provoke outrage and force the federal government to tighten border security. But Mr. Abbott’s buses account for only a small fraction of the people who have arrived; El Paso, a Democrat-led city, has also sent new arrivals to New York at the migrants’ request, officials there have said, and some people have made their own way.

How is the city responding?

In March, the city announced the creation of a 24-hour center to welcome migrants and a new agency to help coordinate the arrival of asylum seekers, but the city’s response has, at times, been fragmented and reactive as the shelter system has become more strained.

More than 61,400 migrants were staying in city homeless shelters as of September, Anne Williams-Isom, the deputy mayor for health and human services, said this week. In total, 115,200 people were staying in homeless shelters across the city, officials said.

The city has proposed using a variety of locations as emergency housing for migrants. It has housed people in hotels, emergency tent shelters on Randall’s Island, school gymnasiums and office buildings and is now looking to new places, like the parking lot of a state psychiatric hospital.

Many of the proposals have been met with pushback from residents, and in some cases the city has retreated. At one point, Mr. Adams seriously considered housing migrants on cruise ships. In all, the city had opened more than 210 shelter sites, including 17 humanitarian relief centers, for asylum seekers by September.

As more and more migrants have arrived, Mr. Adams has changed his messaging and his approach to sheltering them.

He has asked a judge to relieve the city of some of its legal obligations under its unique “right to shelter” mandate. He used an executive order to suspend some of the requirements under the mandate this spring, in anticipation of an influx of new migrants.

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Volunteer groups and city workers have met new arrivals at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, in an effort to connect them with services and shelter.Credit...Dakota Santiago for The New York Times

The mayor has also instituted a rule requiring single adult migrants to reapply for shelter every 60 days. The move, he said, would allow shelters to open up more space for families with children.

This summer, dozens of men, many from Africa, slept on the sidewalk outside an intake center in Manhattan after officials said the shelters were at capacity.

In recent months, the Adams administration has discouraged migrants from coming, distributing fliers at the southern border telling them that there is “no guarantee” they will receive shelter or services.

“Housing in NYC is very expensive,” the fliers said. “Please consider another city as you make your decision about where to settle in the U.S.”

The city has also helped migrants leave the city for other counties in New York, angering some officials in other parts of the state.

How much is caring for migrants costing the city?

The city has estimated that it would spend about $5 billion this fiscal year to house and feed migrants. And at a news conference, Mr. Adams said the cost would exceed $12 billion over the next three years, if migrants continued to arrive at the same rate.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has said that she would ask the State Legislature to allocate $1 billion in the next budget to help the city. The state has already given $1 billion, she said, and is paying for the new tent shelter on Randall’s Island.

The city’s spending has sometimes come under scrutiny.

DocGo, a medical services firm that once contracted with the city to provide Covid testing and vaccinations, has moved hundreds of migrants outside the city under a no-bid $432 million contract. The contract called for the group to house migrants and to provide them with food and services like case management, transportation and round-the-clock security. But migrants have said they were lied to and that representatives of the company gave them documents that falsely claimed they were eligible to work.

What will happen to the migrants next?

Many migrants have said they are pursuing asylum. But it can take three to four years before a final decision is made in asylum cases, which are often complicated and plagued by delays.

Between March and May of this year, nearly 39,000 new immigration court cases were filed in New York City, compared with about 11,000 in Miami-Dade County, Fla., and about 16,000 in Los Angeles County, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

Applicants can apply for temporary employment authorization 150 days after successfully filing an asylum application, but are not eligible to receive a work document until then. (Mr. Adams has asked for President Biden to provide a path to expedited work authorizations for newly arrived migrants, allowing them to work legally.)

The city employs caseworkers to connect with newly arrived asylum seekers and help them enroll their children in school and find immigration lawyers. And in June, Mr. Adams announced the creation of the Asylum Application Help Center to bring together immigration legal service providers and pro bono lawyers and to serve thousands of asylum seekers.

By mid-September, the teams at the help center had helped complete more than 3,800 applications, according to officials.

But even as migrants have applied for asylum in record numbers, advocates and immigration lawyers say that without additional legal support, many — perhaps the majority — will miss their application deadline and fall into a more perilous category of immigrant: the undocumented.

Already, many new arrivals in New York have found jobs in the underground economy and joined the existing pool of undocumented workers, where they remain vulnerable to deportation and exploitation.

Will the flow of migrants continue?

The Biden administration announced in the fall that up to 24,000 Venezuelans would be accepted into the country through a humanitarian parole program. The program, similar to one established for Ukrainians, would require Venezuelans who apply to have someone in the United States able to support them financially for up to two years.

In the days after the program took effect, the number of Venezuelans who entered the country through the U.S.-Mexico border plunged, and some migrants were stranded in Mexico and other countries.

The Biden administration also announced a new asylum policy in an effort to stem illegal crossings this spring. The policy disqualified most people from applying for asylum if they have crossed into the United States without either securing an appointment at an official port of entry or proving that they had sought legal protection in another country along the way.

The policy was struck down by a federal judge in July, but was upheld on appeal while legal challenges to the policy work their way through the courts.

The number of people crossing the border dipped as a result, but in July appeared to be on the rise again.

Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Juan B. Garcia, Jasmine Sheena , Téa Kvetenadze and Jeffery C. Mays contributed reporting.

Basic Facts About Homelessness: New York City

The Coalition for the Homeless provides up-to-date information on New York City’s homeless population. In recent years, homelessness in New York City has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression. You can find more information about homelessness at the following page: Facts About Homelessness (main page)

This page provides an overview of homelessness in New York City. Here you can find the key statistics about New York City’s homeless shelter population and a brief description of some of the main factors causing modern homelessness. You can also download a fact sheet about homelessness in New York City.

Learn more about the data here.

Also see: How many total people are homeless in NYC?

The Basic Facts:

  • In recent years, homelessness in New York City has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

  • In June 2023, there were 84,526 homeless people, including 27,530 homeless children, sleeping each night in New York City’s main municipal shelter system. A near-record 25,061 single adults slept in shelters each night in June 2023.

  • Over the course of City Fiscal Year 2022, 102,656 different homeless adults and children slept in the New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS) shelter system. This includes 29,653 homeless children.

  • Families entering shelters predominantly come from a few clustered zip codes in the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. However, homeless families and single adults come from every community district in NYC prior to entering shelters.

  • The number of homeless New Yorkers sleeping each night in municipal shelters is now 66 percent higher than it was 10 years ago. The number of homeless single adults is 128 percent higher than it was 10 years ago.

  • Research shows that the primary cause of homelessness, particularly among families, is lack of affordable housing. Surveys of homeless families have identified the following major immediate, triggering causes of homelessness: eviction; doubled-up or severely overcrowded housing; domestic violence; job loss; and hazardous housing conditions.

  • Research shows that, compared to homeless families, homeless single adults have higher rates of serious mental illness, addiction disorders, and other severe health problems.

  • Each night thousands of unsheltered homeless people sleep on New York City streets, in the subway system, and in other public spaces. There is no accurate measurement of New York City’s unsheltered homeless population, and recent City surveys significantly underestimate the number of unsheltered homeless New Yorkers.

  • Studies show that the large majority of unsheltered homeless New Yorkers are people living with mental illness or other severe health problems.

  • Black and Hispanic/Latinx New Yorkers are disproportionately affected by homelessness. Approximately 56 percent of heads of household in shelters are Black, 32 percent are Hispanic/Latinx, 7 percent are White, less than 1 percent are Asian-American or Native American, and 4 percent are of unknown race/ethnicity.

  • In City Fiscal Year 2022, the average length of stay in the DHS shelter system was 509 days for single adults, 534 days for families with children, and 855 days for adult families. 

  • In November 2019, DHS estimated that 77 percent of adult families, 68 percent of single adults, and 53 percent of families with children sleeping in shelters had at least one disability. 

Migrants Sleep on the Sidewalk, the Face of a Failing Shelter System….People have come from all over the globe.

They came from Colombia and Chad, from Burundi, Peru,

Venezuela, Madagascar. In New York they had heard there was a

haven for immigrants, a place to live and get back on their feet.

When they arrived, they found out that they had heard wrong.

Two, three, four days later, they were still lined up outside the city’s

migrant intake center at the Roosevelt Hotel, around the corner

from Grand Central Terminal — close to 200 people, nearly all men.

Sleeping on the sidewalk. Heads resting on book bags, trash bags of

belongings by their sides: the visible faces of a system that has

officially broken down.

transcript

‘We’re Left Outside’: Nearly 200 Migrants Wait as N.Y.C.

Struggles to Provide Shelter

A day after Mayor Eric Adams said New York City had run out of shelter space,

migrants tell us how they are spending their days eating and sleeping outside the

Roosevelt Hotel, hoping to get into the city’s intake center.

I just came, like, since three days or four days I’ve been here. As you see, people are

sitting here. We spend the night here, and the day, as well. We are not comfortable.

We wish we can — they can move us to another place, like a safe place. We cannot

spend a whole week here, you know? It’s not safe. It’s dangerous.

A day after Mayor Eric Adams said New York City had run out of shelter space, migrants tell us how they

are spending their days eating and sleeping outside the Roosevelt Hotel, hoping to get into the city’s

intake center.

For over a year, record numbers of asylum seekers have arrived in

New York from across the globe, nearly doubling the city’s homeless

population in one huge spasm: More than 100,000 people now live

in shelters in the city.

Unlike other American cities, especially in the West, where

thousands live in the streets for lack of other options, New York City

is legally required to give anyone shelter who asks for it.

But now the shelters are full. As the migrants have continued to

arrive, the city has built tents, cobbled together a vast portfolio of

hotels and office buildings turned into housing and given migrants

tickets to go elsewhere. It has not been enough. The mayor has

called for state and federal help, saying the city is overwhelmed.

And officials have also, increasingly, pushed back against the city’s

legal obligations to shelter homeless people.

Some migrants who recently arrived in the city have waited for days in front of the Roosevelt Hotel to be

processed. Since last year, the city’s homeless shelter population has surged past 100,000 people.

Mohammadou Sidiya, 20, from Mauritania in West Africa, stood

beside a friend on Tuesday morning. They had traveled for more

than a month to get here.

They came looking for safety, Mr. Sidiya said in Arabic, through a

digital translation. They failed, he added.

Twenty feet away, a cheerful sign taunted them. “Bienvenidos al

arrival center!” it read. “We are currently at capacity.”

New York City’s descent from a place that was managing to keep up,

just barely, with a ceaseless flow of asylum seekers to a place that

had declared defeat was sudden.

Last week, there were still enough beds to allow the city to honor its

legal obligation to offer shelter to every person who wanted it.

Sometime over the weekend, that stopped being the case.

No explanation was offered. Mayor Eric Adams simply said on

Monday, “There is no more room.” He also said, “From this moment

on, it’s downhill.”

Joshua Goldfein, a staff lawyer at the Legal Aid Society, which filed

the litigation that led to the right to shelter more than 40 years ago,

said he believed that the people sleeping outside the Roosevelt were

there in part because the mayor was trying to pressure Washington

to send more aid and trying to discourage more migrants from

coming.

“There are many ways the city could shelter everyone who is on that

sidewalk if that is what they wanted to do,” he said.

Fabien Levy, a spokesman for the mayor, said on Tuesday that the

194 locations the city has opened to shelter asylum seekers are at

capacity.

“Our teams run out of space every single day, and we do our best to

offer placements where we have space available,” he said. He added

that the city is adding two more big humanitarian relief centers in

the coming weeks, including a mega-tent big enough for 1,000

people in the parking lot of a state psychiatric hospital in Queens.

The city has estimated that the migrants will cost more than $4

billion over two years.

Mr. Levy said that Sunday was the first night that the Roosevelt was

unable to offer all migrants a place to stay indoors, even if on a

chair. He said that on other nights, some had been sent to another

hotel where they could stay on a cot, and that any migrants who

slept on the sidewalk did so by choice. He also noted that migrants

had access to air-conditioned buses.

The Roosevelt Hotel, near Grand Central Terminal, is among nearly 200 facilities the city is using to help

and house new arrivals seeking shelter.Jeenah Moon for The New York Times

Erick Marcano came from Venezuela and said he had waited for three days outside the Roosevelt Hotel.

Jeenah Moon for The New York Times

Behind Mr. Sidiya in the line was Erick Marcano, a laborer from

Venezuela. He said he had taken his place on the line on Saturday

and in the ensuing three days had progressed a total of one block,

from the corner of 46th Street to the corner of 45th. He had used

the time to fashion an effective sun hat by jamming a piece of a

cardboard box with a skull-shaped hole cut into it onto the brim of

his baseball cap.

Mr. Marcano had crossed the border a few days before that and

received help from an immigrant advocacy group. “They asked us in

Texas where we wanted to go in the U.S. and that they would pay for

the ticket, and we told them we wanted to come here, to New York,”

he said.

Outside the Roosevelt, he said, “they just tell me to have patience

and wait.” Down the block, at the entrance to the hotel, families

with young children flowed in and out. The city has prioritized

providing shelter to them, so that only adults are left outside.

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican, has chartered some of the

buses that have brought people to New York City, as a way to put

political pressure on Democratic leaders, though the vast majority

of migrants have come in other ways.

On Tuesday, the Legal Aid Society threatened to take the city back to

court. Mr. Goldfein said that Gov. Kathy Hochul also needed to do

more to provide resources and aid to get people housed quickly.

“We are hopeful that the state will step up and meet its obligations

and also that the city will make some changes to what they’re doing

in order to get people off the street,” he said, “but if they don’t, then

we will have to take any appropriate action to protect our clients.”

A 30-year-old migrant from Chad who gave only his first name,

Abdelkerim, said he was surprised to find himself forced to sleep on

the street in New York. “I’d at least think we’d have a place to stay,”

he said.

The migrants have been provided with food while they wait. On

Tuesday, workers with carts went down the line handing out egg sandwiches, bottled water, bananas and popcorn. Just past the end

of the line was Uncle Paul’s pizzeria. The owner, Dino Redzic, said

that he had given out 10 pizzas the night before and was letting the

migrants use his bathroom. “They stay there half an hour and they

wash themselves,” he said.

Mr. Redzic, 50, himself a refugee from the Bosnian war who came

here 30 years ago, said he was disturbed by the scene unfolding

beside his store. “Why is this happening?” he said. “Where are the

churches? Where are the mosques? Where are the people supposed

to take care of them?”

As the afternoon wore on, Ariana Diaz, 34, freshly arrived from

Venezuela via Baja California, took her place at the back of the line.

She had paid for her own plane ticket from the West Coast,

counting on a warmer welcome here.

Where would she stay tonight, Ms. Diaz was asked.

“I don’t even know where I’m standing right now,” she said.

Jeenah Moon for The New York Times

Street homelessness in NYC jumps 17% despite Eric Adams’ efforts to get people off the streets

Despite Mayor Adams’ high-profile efforts to reduce the number of New Yorkers living on the streets, the city is seeing a rise in street homelessness.

The number of people sleeping on the street is up in 2023, according to an annual one-night survey released at the start of the Fourth of July weekend.

The annual Homeless Outreach Population Estimate, or HOPE survey, is conducted by the Social Services Department every year in January. This year, the survey counted 4,042 people sleeping on the city’s streets, in parks, on the subways, on benches and under highway overpasses — about a 17% increase over 2022.

The total is 603 more people than last year’s 3,439 and 1,666 more than in 2021, but closer to the 3,857 people who slept unsheltered in 2020.

The Social Services Department pinned the rise to the influx of migrants to the city and the end of pandemic-related programs like the federally funded use of hotels as homeless shelters, the overnight closure of the subways and the mild weather this past winter.

“Over this past year, our agency has responded to a massive humanitarian crisis while ensuring that we are effectively delivering on our mission to address homelessness in New York City,” Social Services Commissioner Molly Wasow Park said.

“Our shelter census nearly doubled over an incredibly short span and New Yorkers are still recovering from the devastating impact of the pandemic, but thanks to our intensified outreach efforts, bold solutions and vital investments in specialized beds, NYC continues to have one of the lowest rates of unsheltered homelessness of any other major U.S. city.”

During 2021 and 2022, no volunteers conducted the outreach. Instead, the count relied on outreach staff and city workers. Community volunteers were brought back for the 2023 count.

Because of the right-to-shelter law, under which the city is legally obligated to provide a bed to anyone who needs one, New York City has a rate of about 95% of homeless people sleeping in shelters or other indoor locations.

Adams has challenged the right-to-shelter law in court, asking a judge to suspend pieces of the decades-old mandate because of the record migrant-driven surge to the city’s homeless shelters.

The new street homelessness numbers are the latest hit to some of the Adams administration’s high-profile initiatives geared toward getting homeless people off the streets and subways.

Last week, a city comptroller audit said Adams’ controversial homeless encampment sweeps “completely failed,” with just three homeless people getting permanent housing. Of 2,308 removed from the streets, just 90 of them stayed in a homeless shelter for more than a day, city Comptroller Brad Lander said in the audit.

Another program, the Subway Safety Plan, deploys outreach workers to trains and buses with the goal of ending the practice of people using the transit system for shelter.

According to the Social Services Department, outreach workers on the subway have connected 5,000 people in the subway system to beds and other services.

“What we do know is that far too many New Yorkers must resort to sleeping on the streets and in transit facilities because they do not have access to better options,” Dave Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, said in a statement. “If Mayor Adams truly wants to help homeless New Yorkers, he would create more affordable housing, work with the governor to expand access to voluntary psychiatric care, and offer greater access to safe shelters with private rooms in order to tackle this crisis head-on.”

Homeless people resort to sleeping unsheltered for a number of reasons, including violence and unrest in shelters. Paths out of the shelter system are also difficult, with a long, delayed process ahead of anyone looking to obtain a housing voucher or affordable housing.


Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News

Wed, July 5, 2023 at 6:14 PM EDT·3 min read