Mayor Eric Adams’ decision to challenge New York City’s unique “right to shelter” rule isn’t the first time a sitting mayor has taken aim at the decades-old measure requiring the city to provide shelter to anyone in need.
Republican Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani before tried to end or erode measures that guarantee a bed in a homeless shelter. Both failed. And Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, quietly tightened eligibility for families with children.
Adams is now hoping a judge will determine that New York City’s can no longer sustain a right that exists nowhere else in the country, even as he touts the five boroughs’ superiority.
Here’s what you need to know:
Why is Adams doing this?
The mayor’s push comes as the city’s shelter population has soared past previous highs in recent months, with many New Yorkers unable to afford record-high rents and tens of thousands of newly arrived migrants entering the five boroughs in need of a place to stay.
Adams has repeatedly said the city’s shelter system, which was already strained from a deepening affordable housing shortage, can’t handle more people.
“Given that we’re unable to provide care for an unlimited number of people and are already overextended, it is in the best interest of everyone, including those seeking to come to the United States, to be upfront that New York City cannot single-handedly provide care to everyone crossing our border,” Adams said in a statement Tuesday.
In essence, Adams wants permission to suspend the right to shelter rules if the city can’t afford to house people, or doesn’t have the “capacity” to do so — an ambiguous determination with potentially lasting consequences.
He’s in for a fight.
What’s at stake?
New York City’s right to shelter rules have allowed the five boroughs to avoid the mass public homeless encampments evident in other cities, especially on the West Coast.
Already policymakers, shelter providers, homeless rights advocates and…
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