Locked in a private but high-stakes mediation, the city and the Legal Aid Society spent five months working on a legal compromise that would reshape one of the most unique and far-reaching homelessness policies in the country: the right-to-shelter rule, which obligates New York City to provide shelter to anyone in need.
For homeless advocates, the hallmark of any deal would be to preserve the 40-year-old court mandate, the foundation of how New York City deals with its homeless population that’s been applied over the years to men, women and families regardless of national origin. But Friday’s settlement agreement establishes new rules for migrant adults who have arrived in the U.S. since March 2022. Several advocates, including the earliest architect of the right to shelter, said that’s a troubling concession.
“It’s a very high price to pay,” said Robert Hayes, the lawyer who brought the 1981 case, known as Callahan v. Carey, that resulted in a consent decree that established the right to shelter.
Both Mayor Eric Adams and Legal Aid have said the original right-to-shelter provision remains intact. But the new legal filing codifies the Adams administration’s current practice of limiting the initial shelter stay for migrant adults to 30 days — and gives city officials the right to deny shelter stay extensions to those who do not meet certain requirements. Migrants under the age of 23 will be permitted to stay in shelter for at least 60 days.
Hayes, who runs community healthcare clinics across the city, referred to the carveout for migrant adults as a “xenophobic underpinning of the agreement.”
“The mayor and the advocates have abandoned the principles of justice for all,” he added.
Migrant adults make up about 22% of the 65,000 total migrants currently in the shelter system, according to city officials. The agreement does not affect migrant families with children nor does it apply to those who are not migrants.
The Legal Aid Society, which acts as…
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