NEW YORK – Advocates for the homeless say the Adams administration vacated the city’s homeless intake office Thursday night and billed it as an improvement, after controversy erupted this week over deteriorating conditions. The investigative team of our sister station News 4 I-Team first reported immigrant families with children crowding into the office and sleeping on the floor, a practice that is illegal in New York.
While Mayor Eric Adams has largely denied the allegations, Legal Aid Society claims his administration, during a closed-door meeting Thursday morning, acknowledged staffing shortages, long lines and a lack of Spanish-speaking staff at the front door of his homeless shelter system, just three hours before Adams called a news conference to rebuff the group’s criticism.
“We did a great job and we will continue to do better every day,” Adams told reporters, denying Legal Aid’s claims that his administration tried to cover up violations at the city’s homeless intake center in south El Bronx.
SEE THE COMPLETE REPORT IN ENGLISH HERE.
But during that private meeting Thursday, the administration promised to investigate whether long lines and language barriers have been forcing families to miss the daily deadline to secure a shelter bed, according to a Legal Aid memo sent to senior homeless officials and shared with the NBC New York investigative team d .
The intake center, known as “PATH,” is designed only as an entry point into the shelter system where applications are processed, not as a place to house families overnight.
Overnights at PATH are prohibited by local law and a 2008 court settlement between the city and the Legal Aid Society, which represents people seeking refuge. Legal Aid lawyers are supposed to be aware of conditions in the system, but they weren’t aware of the situation at PATH until the News 4 I-team report surfaced on July 20.
On July 19, Mayor Adams issued a press release sounding the alarm about a surge of 2,800 migrants flooding the shelter system. The mayor’s statement called for federal aid, but did not mention any of the prohibited practices in his intake office.
Legal Aid pounced, characterizing Adams’ migrant ad as a cynical attempt at pre-emptive public relations. Mayor Adams insists that he was not aware of any legal violations brewing in the system as of July 21.
“There’s no reason to cover up,” Adams said. “This is an administration of transparency.”
After years of relative calm, the controversial homeless entry point is back in the spotlight amid a recent influx of asylum-seeking migrants from Central and South America. In interviews conducted by the News 4 I-Team, the migrant families said they had been living in the lobby of the intake center and sleeping on the floor there for days at a time, along with dozens of other families.
Some said their children were hungry and needed more food and water than the shelter system provided.
“There were a lot of people on the ground. It’s not a lie. There were at least 80 people on the floor,” Leonardo Mayora told the News 4 I-Team from NBC, who crossed the border into Texas in early July after a six-month trip from Venezuela with his wife and 3-year-old son.
Mayora says her family witnessed sexual assaults on migrant children and found the bodies of other asylum seekers who did not survive the journey.
After a Texas church paid for their bus fare to Washington, DC, Mayora says another church offered them a second bus ticket to New York City. He was given an address on East 151st Street. When she first arrived at PATH, she said she thought it was a hotel, but she quickly found out otherwise.
“People said there was no room,” said Mayora, who says her family slept on the floor from July 15-20.
When NBC New York asked Mayor Adams why these families would say they were sleeping in the building if they weren’t, he seemed to back down.
“You are an excellent reporter, so if you see cases like that, please let us know because that is not who we are and it is not what this administration is about,” he said.
Because New York provides the “right to a shelter,” families are entitled to a placement the same day they enter the system, as long as they arrive at PATH by 10:00 p.m.
“Human beings mess up sometimes,” the mayor said, arguing that failing to house four families was a relatively small mistake considering his claim that the system has been swamped with as many as 3,000 asylum seekers from Central and South America in the last six weeks.
In the Legal Aid memo, attorneys for the homeless called for data to support Adams’ claim Tuesday that 2,800 immigrants entered the system in the past six weeks. City officials have not responded to requests to explain why the alleged increase in immigrants is not clearly reflected in the city’s data.
Asked if officials counted the actual number of immigrant refugee claims, Social Services Commissioner Gary Jenkins said, “It’s definitely an estimate.”
Legal Aid accused the mayor of blaming migrants for overcrowding in shelters to deflect pre-existing management problems. In its memo, Legal Aid also states that the city acknowledged behind closed doors that “staffing issues are impeding its ability to move shelter residents into permanent housing, contributing to the exceptionally low vacancy rate in shelters.” “.
Fabien Levy, a spokesman for Mayor Adams, said in a statement, “We will review the letter and respond to Legal Aid in a timely manner. As Mayor Adams said yesterday, he expects those who claim to advocate for the homeless to speak and work directly with us, rather than communicate through press releases and leaked letters. Unfortunately we continue to see this same practice of Legal Aid.
Editorial Note: This was an exclusive report from the investigative team of our sister network NBC 4 New York News 4 I-Team.
SEE THE COMPLETE REPORT IN ENGLISH HERE. OR BELOW
–
