The Adams administration is planning to make migrant families with children reapply for shelter every 60 days, as it amps up efforts to discourage new arrivals from coming to New York and attempts to encourage those already here in city care to find new accommodations.
The move comes as the number of people living in the Big Apple’s shelter and relief system has doubled since the migrant crisis began last year, with more than 118,000 people — 64,000 of them migrants — currently staying in city-run or city-funded facilities.
Officials have already rolled out a similar policy for single migrant adults, who are now required to reapply for shelter every 30 days.
One City Council source said that the Adams administration in conversations with lawmakers last week floated requiring families to reapply for shelter.
Sources expected the announcement later on Friday.
The move comes as the tempo of arrivals has surged in recent weeks after a respite in the summer, putting the city’s safety net under renewed pressure.
“It’s frustrating because it interferes with our ability to provide adequate oversight and they’re changing their minds every few minutes,” said Councilwoman Diana Ayala (D-Manhattan/The Bronx), who chairs the general welfare committee.
“These are kids who are supposed to be enrolled in school, but how can you get your kids to school if you don’t know where you’re going to live,” she added.
City Hall did not deny it was eying the change, but issued a statement that said it had yet to make any formal announcement.
New York City operates under a set of legal settlements and court decisions collectively known as the ‘right to shelter’ that require City Hall to find accommodations for any person in need, regardless of citizenship.
That rules remains in force even as lawyers for City Hall are pressing their case in Manhattan Supreme Court to trim back or suspend the regulations.
The ‘right to shelter’ means that officials cannot turn migrants away from the shelter system, but officials argue that making them reapply helps encourage migrants to look for alternative accommodations in the five boroughs or beyond the city.
Getting recent arrivals to move onward, they add, is essential to free up space for the coming waves of people from Central and South America, who are also fleeing death squads, cartel violence and economic hardship.
Many of the migrants are expected to try and claim asylum and are legally allowed to remain in the United States as their cases are decided in immigration court, however that’s a process that frequently takes years.
By law, most migrants must wait at least six months just to qualify for work papers, a requirement passed by Congress a generation ago to try and discourage people from coming — meaning they’re entirely dependent on the city for their care for those months.
The Biden administration recently agreed to provide Venezuelans who entered the U.S. before July 31 with expedited authorization for employment.
However, City Hall estimated that the policy change would only help approximately 10,000 of the roughly 60,000 migrants in shelter.