(The Center Square) — New York City is moving to enforce a 60-day limit on stays in the city’s emergency shelter system, a move city officials say will hasten the eviction of many of the 30,000 migrant families living in shelters.
The New York Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance said the state has granted the city permission to begin issuing 60-day eviction notices to migrants and other homeless families not receiving public assistance.
The policy was implemented in January, but until now, state regulations had spared migrants from the 60-day limits on shelter stays. Homeless families living in other shelters run by the city have been subject to the policy for months.
More than 30,000 migrants are staying in shelters run by the city’s Department of Homeless Services, spread across 150 hotels, large-scale emergency housing sites and other locations.
“People should not be in shelters their entire lives,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a press briefing. “This is traumatizing, and I don’t know if any of you have seen what it is, but it is traumatizing to live in these conditions.”
Homeless advocates have urged the city to halt the time limits on shelter stays, calling them “cruel and disruptive” for vulnerable families who are just settling into schools and communities.
“Shelters have always been designed to be a temporary stop-gap until families can get on their feet, but without inclusive and supportive housing solutions, our shelter system will remain overburdened and our families will continue to fall through the cracks,” the New York Immigration Coalition said in a statement.
City officials said they plan to evict migrants on a rolling basis and will be helping connect them with alternative housing. They say some families can reapply for shelter if they have nowhere else to go.
“We’re telling people that they have 60 days and that they can see if there’s other places, other family members,” Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom said during a briefing.
The city also plans on moving about 800 migrants from a large shelter on Randall’s Island as part of a crackdown on tent encampments set up next to the shelter by migrants who have maxed out their stay.
New York City has had an influx of more than 210,000 asylum seekers over the past year and a historic surge of immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border, a crisis that Adams said is “not going away.”
The city is providing housing, food and other necessities for more than 60,000 migrants in more than 200 temporary “humanitarian” shelters. Adams estimates the city will need to spend $12 billion on migrants through 2025.
Republicans have long said New York City’s “sanctuary” policies are encouraging asylum seekers to resettle in the city amid the surge of immigration.
