Advocates are calling for the city that never sleeps to be the city that never lets migrants sleep outside. Protesters gathered outside Gracie Mansion this past Thursday, Nov. 16 demanding the city cease shelter stay limits for migrants and uphold the right-to-shelter decree.
Advocacy groups like the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) and African Communities Together (ACT) organized the demonstration, later staging tents and bed rolls for a “sleep-in” a few blocks from the official residence of Mayor Eric Adams to illustrate the street homeless situation.
“We are here because Black asylum seekers are often left out of the conversation,” said ACT membership and services manager Sophie Kouyate during the rally.
A 60-day shelter limit for adult migrants announced in summer was halved to 30 days earlier this fall. Last month, the city announced a 60-day shelter limit for families with children. Service providers, including ACT, say the restrictions obstruct their ability to connect migrants to the proper resources.
“As we’re seeing it, the limits have only exacerbated the confusion, fear, and instability of arriving asylum seekers,” said an ACT spokesperson over email. “We have droves of community members coming into our office and the overwhelming majority of them all need help with housing. We can barely get around to talking about other services the city can potentially provide because the concern on everyone’s mind is ‘where am I going to stay tonight?’”
NYIC executive director Murad Awawdeh told the Amsterdam News at the protest that organizations “have stepped up to double or triple their capacity” without additional resources. He added that the city’s attempts to erode the right-to-shelter decree, which guarantees temporary housing for every unhoused individual, would impact New Yorkers no matter immigration status.
“This is indicative of how vulnerable and marginalized communities have been treated for decades here in the city,” said Awawdeh. “And what we need is for all communities to see through the scapegoating and see that we’re all in this together, and that we have one fight and it’s a fight for all of our communities, to get the support that they need. So they can not just survive here but to thrive here.”
The mandate stems from the Callahan v. Carey class action lawsuit and is unique for major American cities. Last month, city lawyers requested the agreement’s suspension, calling the consent decree “outmoded and cumbersome in the face of the present migrant crisis” in a letter to a New York Supreme Court judge.
Adams maintains the challenges to Callahan are not meant to terminate the decree. A spokesperson from his office says there are currently 65,000 migrants in the city’s care and “quite simply, out of good options to shelter” them.
“Unless those now criticizing New York City’s response have realistic alternatives to suggest, we ask that they instead join us in calling for meaningful help and a decompression strategy from our state and federal partners,” she said over an email statement. “As we have repeatedly said, a city cannot continue to manage a national crisis almost entirely on its own. It’s not fair to asylum seekers and it’s not fair to longtime New Yorkers.”
During the protest, ACT founder and executive director Amaha Kassa recommended employing housing vouchers to secure stable housing for migrants until they could obtain a work permit and pay rent, along with demands of the federal and state government to contribute more and for more affordable housing to replace vacant buildings and lots.
Following the rally, a Senegalese migrant told reporters he was removed from a Brooklyn city shelter after the 30-day limit. He says he’s currently staying at a masjid and was told he could only stay for two weeks. After that, there’s nothing else lined up for him housing wise.
“I don’t know what I have to do,” he said.
Later that Thursday, the city announced agency budget cuts, naming the $12 billion in projected spending towards the new arrivals as a key reason. City officials told the Amsterdam News during a briefing that scapegoating against migrants over the cuts was a serious concern and that it was a matter of resources and that “if [the city doesn’t] have the resources to fund to pay for this, [it has] to find it somewhere.” They hope that somewhere is the state.
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.