Some New York City legal services providers are worried that the Adams administration’s recent policy of evicting thousands of migrants from homeless shelters after 30 or 60 days and making them reapply for housing could create additional challenges for those eligible for work authorization — a solution city and state officials say is critical to alleviating a crowded shelter system.
City Hall’s new requirement could mean applicants don’t have a stable address where the federal government can send them immigration paperwork, according to several nonprofit groups. Single migrant adults have to reapply for shelter after 30 days and families with children staying in shelters run by NYC Health and Hospitals are limited to 60-day stays.
“That’s sort of one of the big things that people are trying to figure out right now,” said Camille Mackler, executive director of Immigrant ARC, a network of 80 legal providers.
Migrants who have to change their addresses frequently will have to fill out extra paperwork after they apply for Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, a federal designation that allows people from certain countries who’ve lived continuously in the United States as of a certain date the ability to legally remain and work in the country for a certain period of time.
“The work permit is a physical card, and it is going to go to a physical address. And if the government does not know that physical address, they are going to send it to wherever the person used to live,” said Lauren Wyatt, a managing attorney at Catholic Charities of New York.
“We are worried about people submitting their application and then that approval or that work permit going to the former address and then they don’t have any way to get any copies of those things,” she added.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and other state Democrats who lobbied for extended TPS protections argue that while the federal program isn’t a panacea, it would help families find more stable employment and move…
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