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Mayor Adams' bid to suspend right to shelter for some will have 'ripple effects,' advocates warn
By
Michelle Bocanegra
Published Oct 4, 2023
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By
Michelle Bocanegra
Published Oct 4, 2023
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A legal update filed by the Adams administration to temporarily suspend the right to shelter in New York City for single adults could have potentially devastating consequences for homeless New Yorkers and their families, advocates say.
In announcing the court filing late Tuesday, Adams said in a statement that his administration was “not seeking to terminate Callahan,” referring to the 1981 consent decree upon which the city’s right-to-shelter protections were built. Rather, the mayor said he was seeking temporary relief amid the migrant influx, which the original law did not anticipate.
But in a briefing with reporters on Wednesday morning, Josh Goldfein, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society, argued that the city’s posture on the long-established norms under Callahan indicated that “everything is on the table.”
“The right to shelter is a basic guarantee that should apply to everyone,” Goldfein said on Wednesday morning. “And any steps that the city takes to weaken that will cause a ripple effect that will call into question the meaning of a right to shelter for everyone.”
That could potentially include protections for families with children, established in a different consent decree from the Callahan ruling, Goldfein said. Former Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who now runs Win, the city's largest homeless shelter provider for children, echoed that fear.
“While this attempt to roll back the right to shelter only applies to single adults, it will start New York down a slippery slope that will undoubtedly put families with children in harm's way,” Quinn said in a statement on Wednesday. "With the city already threatening to put mothers and children in unsafe congregate settings, all New Yorkers should stand against these attempts to undermine our city's social safety net.”
Spokespeople for Adams did not immediately comment on Wednesday.
“What is the alternative?” Goldfein said. “If we do not have a right to shelter, if we are turning people away from the shelter system, if people are now living in the streets, in the subways, in the parks — is that the outcome that they want?”
Attorneys for the city implored a judge on Tuesday night to ease New York City's obligations under the Callahan decree should a subset of circumstances arise, such as if the mayor or governor declares a state of emergency or if shelter demand in the city is at least 50% higher than normal.
Both the city and state have declared states of emergency over the migrants' continued arrival. Republican governors from states along the border with Mexico, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have bused large numbers of migrants — many of whom are also seeking asylum — to northern states.
Goldfein said the formula that the city specified was “poorly drafted” and could jeopardize shelter protections for the broader homeless population, including families with children.
In his statement late Tuesday, Adams said the city was trying to level the playing field by ensuring its obligations were “aligned with those of the rest of the state during states of emergency.”
“The Callahan decree — entered over 40 years ago, when the shelter population was a fraction of its current size — was never intended to apply to the extraordinary circumstances our city faces today,” the mayor said.
Tagged
new york city
housing
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eric adams
homeless
Michelle Bocanegra
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