NEW YORK (WPIX) — Mayor Eric Adams is facing backlash for no longer guaranteeing shelter, to anyone experiencing homelessness, including the hundreds of migrants who moving to New York City desperate for a new life.
In a new executive order, New York City has suspended the right-to-shelter policy that has been in place since the 1970s. It comes amid a wave of asylum seekers looking to cross the southern border as Title 42, the pandemic-era policy that restricted immigrants from coming into the United States expires on May 11.
In effect, the city is bracing for as many as 1,000 migrants being bused per day, and Adams said after welcoming in 61,000 migrants last year, there is no more room.
To offset the wave of migrants coming to the city, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Friday that the city would send up to 300 single, adult men to two hotels in suburban Rockland County and neighboring Orange County for up to four months.
However, the plan has been met with fierce and fiery resistance from county leaders, who even declared a state of emergency and a filed restraining order.
“It was a sneak attack in the dark of night,” Orangetown Supervisor Teresa Kenny said at a news conference Wednesday.
New York City officials had intended to move forward with at least part of the plan and send “a small number of asylum seekers” to Orange County on Wednesday, Adams spokesperson Fabien Levy said in a statement.
But by the end of the day, no migrants had arrived at the hotel, identified by Orange County officials as the Crossroads Hotel in the Town of Newburgh, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) north of the city.
In another statement, Levy said they were “discussing legal and safety concerns with our state partners, and while we have paused tonight, our plans have not changed.”
The Legal Aid Society has come out and expressed its concerns saying, “Congregate shelters put families and children at risk of diseases and sexual assault.”
In an interview with PIX11 News, Josh Goldstein continued saying, “The kinds of things [the city’s] talking about is putting people in places they haven’t used before. they’ve used tents and gyms but I’ve heard suggestions they might use storage containers, for instance, or sheds…rather than giving them a full room.”
However Levy says the city is still weighing its options, “We are considering a multitude of options, but, as we’ve been saying for a year, we desperately need federal and state support to manage this crisis.”