Gimme Shelter

Before current Republican governors in the South decided to start playing politics with the lives and dreams of the humans that crossed our border, New Yorkers fighting for the protection of our unhoused community established in court what is known as our Right to Shelter. These advocates rightly relied on the language from our own state constitution to convince the court that “the aid, care and support of the needy are public concerns and shall be provided by the state…” In short, the consent decree agreed upon in 1981 provided the baseline standards of what the city must provide to those unhoused. 

In the decades since this decision, the Right to Shelter has come under attack as mayors such as Rudy Giuiliani and Michael Bloomberg tried to roll it back. Legal activist groups like The Legal Aid Society have been instrumental in holding the line and fighting to maintain basic care for our fellow New Yorkers. 

Back in 2022, Mayor Eric Adams was faced with an influx of migrants being sent to our city as a sort of retaliation from southern governors, a way to ‘own the libs’ and taunt our choice of declaring ourselves a sanctuary city. Using the surge of people entering the city as pretext and the emergency powers he was granted, Adams began his attack on our Right to Shelter. He initiated a 30-day limit for single migrants in shelters and a 60-day limit for families. After that period has lapsed, migrants were evicted from their temporary homes and forced to head to a reticketing center (i.e., St. Brigid) to wait in line and hopefully be assigned a new shelter. This blatant defiance of the Right to Shelter resulted in the long lines and miserable conditions that organizations like EVLovesNYC have fought against for months. 

This brings us to yesterday. The Legal Aid Society and The Coalition for the Homeless announced they had reached a deal with Mayor Adams and the City to protect the Right to Shelter for our unhoused community. And they have! It is a big win for the bedrock principles of Right to Shelter, but as the dust settles, we are able to see how this affects our new neighbors. 

The new agreement establishes more codified standards of what the city provides: access to showers, shelter and food. These seem simple and basic, but access to real, nutritious food and showers has been a flashpoint between groups like EVLovesNYC and the City from the beginning. (Remember the sorry meals that the city was providing through their no-bid contracts?)

This settlement agreement also establishes a more transparent system for how people are notified about their shelter stays, and what criteria they need to complete to extend their stay beyond the 30 days. Ultimately, this is helpful:

We have had conversations with individuals who had no idea that they only had 30 days in the shelter before they had to start over. The people who set them straight about what they must do and what rules they have to follow were simply other migrants who have learned themselves. Now, through this deal, there will be at least a point person from the city educating the residents of the shelters, in their own language, about what is expected of them. 

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention where we feel this settlement agreement falls short of the realities many migrants are facing. 

First, we believe it’s important to break down the settlement step by step. The text of the settlement can be read HERE. Feel free to follow along. 

Single adults will only be eligible for a city shelter if they cannot secure their own housing due to lack of income or resources and they don’t have another housing option within the United States. If the City has sufficient evidence that an individual has resources or income for housing, it can deny a shelter placement. This is concerning to us. The “sufficient evidence” standard is not outlined in the settlement agreement and without thorough oversight, we would not put it past this administration to rely on “sufficient evidence” to widely deny shelter to bring the shelter numbers to a level more appealing to Mayor Adams. 

The settlement does state that any alternative potential housing options that the City would use as a reason to deny shelter to an individual must be available to the individual at the time of their arrival. The alternative housing options will include any address in the US where the individual previously stayed or the homes of sponsors on federal immigration documents. If the City denies shelter based on alternative housing, they are required to provide transportation to that address, which could leave people in another strange place and without resources to get the assistance needed while, again, serving to lower the migrant numbers to what Mayor Adams deems an acceptable level.

After an individual has been granted a shelter placement, the shelter will be required to provide a notice in the individual’s preferred language explaining how long they are permitted to remain in that shelter. It is important to note that, if eligible, the minimum shelter time for a single adult over 23 is 30 days and a single adult under the age of 23 is 60 days. 

The reality is this settlement agreement cements the 30/60 day rule that City Council members have been trying to repeal. It does not prevent the outright eviction of individuals from shelters. According to the settlement agreement, one week before their eviction, the individuals must be given written notice that their settlement end date is approaching. This notice should also highlight how the individual can seek to extend their time in the shelter or obtain reticketing assistance. 

Regarding extending time in the shelter, an individual can request to extend their stay in their current shelter based on “extenuating circumstances.” While examples of these extenuating circumstances are outlined in the settlement agreement, it is still concerning to us. Some of the examples of reasons to extend a stay in a shelter are: 

1. Proof of an alternative housing option within 30 days (must have a specific date to move out)
2. Proof of leaving NYC within 30 days (must have a specific date)
3. Immigration hearing within 30 days
4. Serious medical condition 
5. “Significant efforts to resettle” (at the complete discretion of the City)

Significant efforts to resettle is a very nebulous condition. It is described in the settlement agreement as any number of things that many of the individuals we have met have already been doing, such as: appointments with immigration legal services; learning English; searching for employment; applying for asylum or temporary protected status (TPS); contacting family members for resources or potential housing; and applying for public assistance. It is up to the discretion of the City if any of these actions is enough to extend your stay. 

Additionally, the fact that an individual has an immigration hearing date is not enough to extend the stay. The hearing must be within the next 30 days. Many of the individuals we have worked with arrived in the fall of 2023 and their hearing dates are not until the end of April or beginning of May. They do not control the hearing dates, yet they are expected to have a date within 30 days. This particular criteria is neither logical nor achievable, and seems to be just another easy way for the City to clear a shelter bed and create a new  unhoused person.

One highlight of this settlement agreement is the disability section. The City will be forced to comply with federal, state and local laws that protect individuals with disabilities. If the individual has a verifiable disability which makes it difficult for them to resettle or meet requirements for placement, they cannot be denied placement in a city shelter and the City will offer an extended placement beyond 30 or 60 days. We love reasonable accommodations!

If an individual is denied a shelter placement, the City must provide a written notice of denial in the individual’s language  and the basis for such denial, as well as a contact person for review. 

The settlement agreement also requires basic shelter conditions that the City must meet. There must be appropriate and safe levels of staffing ratios, bathroom and shower ratios, beds and on-site services. What constitutes “on-site services” is not defined. 

Finally, the City is required to provide weekly reports to the Legal Aid Society reflecting the number of new arrivals in the care of city agencies, new arrivals in the shelters and individuals who have left the shelter system that week. 

What this order doesn’t provide are the services they demand folks engage in, such as legal services in relation to their immigration paperwork, English classes, job training, etc. Barriers seem to be continually set between the asylum seekers and any means of accessing  the basic needs the city must provide. 

As with so much of this humanitarian situation unfolding, we as a community must continue to fill in the gaps. EVLovesNYC, and our EV Neighbors Who Care friends at Earth Chxrch and the Red Cross have all started and will continue to find ways to provide pro bono legal services so people can not just meet the conditions to keep a roof over their heads, but reach the permanent solutions they need to build the better life they risked so much to achieve.