Queens pols call on gov to back Right to Shelter rules
/
As the city continues to struggle to house incoming asylum seekers, a group of lawmakers are calling on Governor Kathy Hochul to withdraw her support of Mayor Eric Adams’ efforts to suspend the city’s Right to Shelter mandate. Eagle photo by ryan schwach
By Ryan Schwach
As New York City and the Adams Administration – with support from Governor Kathy Hochul – fight the city’s Right to Shelter rules in court, a host of local electeds including, several from Queens, penned a letter to Hochul this week calling on her to keep the mandate in place.
In recent months, as thousands of asylum seekers arrive in the city each month, Mayor Eric Adams and his administration have petitioned a judge to suspend the decades-long mandate which requires the city to provide shelter to anyone who asks for it. That effort has been consistently called out and challenged by electeds and social justice organizations in the city, arguing the ending of Right to Shelter would harm migrants and homeless New Yorkers alike.
Now, going into the colder winter months, a group of nearly 50 legislators are calling for the governor to reverse her administration’s support of the Adams administration’s position.
“For more than 40 years, New York’s bedrock Right to Shelter has served as an inviolable baseline of decency, ensuring that those without homes are not relegated to sleeping on the streets, exposed to the elements,” the letter sent on Wednesday reads. “It is because of this critical right that New York City does not have the vast tent encampments seen in so many other cities around the country. As winter approaches, and as New York City is increasingly subject to extreme weather, it is vital that the Right to Shelter stay in place. This basic policy saves lives and is integral to the humanity of our community.”
The coalition of state lawmakers includes several from Queens; Senators Jessica Ramos, Julia Salazar and Kristen Gonzalez, and Assemblymembers Khaleel Anderson, Juan Ardila, Vivian Cook, Catalina Cruz, Jessica González-Rojas, Andrew Hevesi, Zohran Mamdani and Steven Raga all signed on.
“As members of the New York State legislature who represent a diverse array of communities across New York State, we respectfully call on you to stop supporting efforts to weaken or in any way undermine New York’s legal Right to Shelter,” the letter read. “We believe that rolling back the Right to Shelter would put countless vulnerable people at risk of grave harm and could forever change the landscape of New York in unpredictable and deleterious ways.”
Going a step further, the electeds also called for more housing policies to find other shelter opportunities for migrants.
“The demand for affordable housing is outstripping the supply,” the letter read. “We also know that new arrivals seeking a better life will continue to come to New York. In the coming legislative session, we are eager to work together to fight for sensible housing policies – like rental assistance, tenant protections, and an increase in affordable housing supply – that will take the strain off our City and State shelter systems and make our New York more livable for all.”
“We stand ready to work with you to ensure that people in need are not left to live, or die, on the streets of New York City.” they added.
For the past several months, Adams has warned that the city was “out of room,” and unable to house newly arriving migrants.
Earlier this week, the mayor warned that migrants may soon have to resort to sleeping on the streets, as space for them becomes more and more limited. He also suggested that the city may begin handing out tents and forming tent cities, a move that itself received quick criticism from the Legal Aid Society, who are challenging the mayor’s actions against Right to Shelter in court.
“Passing out tents as winter approaches is not only a mockery of the city’s legal and moral obligation to provide safe shelter to people without homes, but it will put lives in danger,” Legal Aid said in a statement issued with the Coalition for the Homeless. “People freezing to death on the streets is the exact nightmare that the Right to Shelter was designed to prevent.”
“Make no mistake, when the Mayor and Governor talk about rolling back the Right to Shelter, this is what they mean: relegating desperate people – long-time New Yorkers and newcomers alike – to sleeping on sidewalks, in parks, and in other public spaces across the city, exposed to the elements,” they continued.
The Adams administration’s challenge to Right to Shelter is currently ongoing in Manhattan court. The judge overseeing the case recently referred the two parties into mediation.
“We welcome the court directing the parties into mediation to both build off of the recent solutions we have secured and identify additional resources that will ensure the City’s compliance with the Callahan consent decree and safeguard our clients’ well-being,” Legal Aid said in a separate statement last week.
“Mediation will also allow for many of the measures recently put into place to actually materialize and live up to their full intended promise, including expedited processing of work authorization and the extension and re-designation of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, among other items,” they added.
