Manhattan judge in right-to-shelter case says Gov. Kathy Hochul's administration must do more to help NYC with migrant crisis





Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News/TNS

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Molly Crane-Newman, Chris Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News
Fri, August 4, 2023 at 4:36 PM EDT




NEW YORK — A Manhattan judge who oversees New York’s decades-old right-to-shelter mandate agreed in a court hearing Friday that Gov. Hochul must to do more to help alleviate the city’s spiraling migrant crisis, according to an attorney who participated in the proceeding.

The emergency hearing before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Erika Edwards was held to address concerns raised by the Legal Aid Society that the right-to-shelter mandate may have been violated this week after a large group of migrants were forced to sleep for days on the sidewalk in front of the city’s asylum seeker intake center in Midtown.

The hearing was conducted almost entirely behind closed doors, meaning no reporters could observe the discussion between Edwards and attorneys for Legal Aid, Mayor Eric Adams’ administration and Hochul’s administration.

Josh Goldfein, a Legal Aid lawyer on the case, told reporters outside the courthouse that Edwards made clear in the hearing that the state must play a larger role in ensuring the tens of thousands of mostly Latin American migrants who have arrived in the city since last spring receive beds in shelters.

“You need to treat this like an emergency,” Goldfein recalled Edwards telling attorneys representing the state at the hearing.

The judge also made clear she does not want ”to see a repeat of the scenes we saw this week,” Goldfein said, a reference to the dozens of migrants who resorted to sleeping outside the Roosevelt Hotel intake center in Midtown this week after being informed there was no more space in the city shelter system.

“In order for the city to comply (with right-to-shelter), they need assistance from the state,” Goldfein said, recounting the hearing before Edwards. “The state has resources that it has not provided. The state has not taken ownership of what is a statewide issue.”

A spokesman for Hochul declined to comment on the hearing, but pointed out that the governor’s administration has dispatched 2,000 National Guard troops to help with logistics and given the city authorization to use three state-owned sites for housing migrants. Hochul also signed off on a state budget this year that includes a $1 billion commitment in migrant crisis-related aid for the city.
But Goldfein said that’s not enough.

He told reporters Hochul should promptly issue an executive order prohibiting counties in New York from refusing to accommodate migrants, as some Republican-run jurisdictions upstate have. He also suggested the state should provide more sites for the city to use as shelters and supply more MTA buses to use as transportation for migrants.

“The city should not have to take on the full financial burden of this problem,” Goldfein said.

Edwards wrapped up Friday’s hearing by ordering the Adams’ administration to submit a list detailing state resources and facilities it believes the city could make use of to help tackle the migrant crisis by Aug. 9. The state must then issue a response to the city’s proposals by Aug. 15.

Spokespeople for Adams did not immediately return requests for comment after the proceeding.

New York’s right-to-shelter law, which is unique in the country, originates from a 1981 consent decree that requires the city to provide a bed and certain basic amenities to anyone who needs it. The city, the state and the Legal Aid Society were the parties to the original consent decree, which is why representatives for all three appeared in court Friday.

With more than 55,000 migrants now staying in city shelters and hundreds more arriving every week, Adams has openly questioned the legitimacy of right-to-shelter, saying its requirements are impossible to comply with under current circumstances.

In May, lawyers for Adams filed papers in court asking Edwards to allow his administration to suspend right-to-shelter requirements for the duration of the migrant crisis — a move that prompted intense backlash from progressive Democrats and homeless advocates. Edwards has not yet made any decision on that request.

Since May, the Adams’ administration has taken more steps homeless advocates say fly in the face of right-to-shelter requirements, including instituting a 60-day limit on shelter stays for adult male migrants.

Adams has said he’s forced to take such drastic actions because of a lack of financial and logistical aid from the federal government. He has also pointed fingers at the state, saying it needs to provide more help, too, though most of his migrant crisis-related criticism are aimed at the feds.

Though the federal government isn’t a party to the right-to-shelter decree, Edwards asked the Adams administration to supply the court with a list of things it believes the feds can do to help, noting that could go beyond monetary relief.



https://www.yahoo.com/news/manhattan...203600075.html