Two New York state Democrats are taking aim at Mayor Eric Adams’ limits on how long migrants can stay in city shelters.
Manhattan state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Queens Assemblymember Catalina Cruz introduced legislation to scrap the “cruel” city-imposed caps on shelter stays.
“The current shelter time limit policies are not only inhumane but counterproductive, thrusting families into further uncertainty and distress,” Cruz said in a statement Monday.
Under current Adams administration policy, single adults residing at city-run shelters must reapply for permission to stay every 30 days. Families must reapply every 60 days.
Hoylman-Sigal called the policy “cruel and unnecessary.”
“Kicking people out to the streets during the coldest time of year won’t help solve our housing crisis and forcing asylum seekers out of shelters will do nothing to mitigate the migrant situation,” he said in a statement.
City Hall has argued that the caps are necessary to help get asylum seekers out on their own and into more stable living situations, as the Big Apple’s shelter system struggles to handle the crisis with thousands more migrants arriving each week.
“Most New Yorkers agree that a shelter system should be temporary, especially for children who need consistency and permanency,” Adams spokesperson Kayla Mamelak told The Post in a statement.
“A hotel room is no place to grow up or raise a family. That is why we are so focused on helping people move from shelter into more self-sufficient lives, and why we strongly support resettling families in areas where they can build lives in this country.”
Hoylman-Sigal and Cruz’s effort to in coordination with the New York Shelter for All in Need Equally coalition, a group of activists, labor and religious leaders pushing to end the limits.
“City’s migrant crisis demands real solutions, not short-sighted and senseless policies that make life harder for our new neighbors,” Christine Quinn, President & CEO of Win NYC, the city’s largest shelter system, wrote in a statement.
The city is expected to spend more than $10 billion on the care of migrants through the next fiscal year.
More than 170,000 asylum seekers have come through NYC to date, with just over 66,000 still in the city’s care.