Statement by New York City Comptroller on Mayor’s Announcement to Arbitrarily End the Right to Shelter for Single Adults Seeking Asylum After 30 Days

 

“We should work harder to house people before we unhouse them.”

“It is deeply disappointing that the Adams Administration, which arbitrarily cut the duration of shelter placements for single adult migrants to 60 days just a few weeks ago, has now cut it in half to 30 days, all without the permission of the court or the consent of the Callahan conferees.

“The next hearing on the Administration’s rash request to curtail the decades-long right to shelter is just next week. I don’t support the effort to eliminate that right for new arrivals – but in any case, negotiation in court is the right way to proceed, not arbitrary action on a Friday afternoon.

“The right to shelter is what makes New York City a place where the vast majority of homeless people don’t sleep on the streets, unlike peer U.S. cities. Eroding it will have long-term consequences.  

“Rather than pushing people into the street, the City should stay laser focused on getting people into housing. With President Biden’s expansion of Temporary Protected Status opening up work authorization for Venezuelans, additional federal and state capacity to expedite processing of work authorization for people granted humanitarian parole, and the City’s expansion of its Asylum Seeker Application Center and intensive case management, we are in a strong position to do what the Mayor and Governor have said they want to do: help tens of thousands of asylum seekers get on their feet and out of shelter before the end of the year. A genuine statewide resettlement program coordinated and supported by Albany – which is what we need instead of the City’s $432 million no-bid contract with DocGo – could double the scale.  

“And by building on the strategies that helped the City increase exits from shelter into housing for long-time stayers over the past year, implementing CityFHEPs reforms, and working with Albany to establish the Housing Access Voucher Program, we could help tens of thousands of long-time New Yorkers move out of shelter into permanent housing – creating space in our existing shelters so we don’t have to rely on costly and inappropriate sites to shelter new arrivals.     

“We should work harder to house people before we unhouse them.”