Of course, the expectation of the right to unlimited refuge is the great wall that both single people and families with children will encounter, who continue to disembark to a frozen city that now imposes new rules, after more than 16 months dealing with a completely collapsed shelter system.
After 40 years, New York City’s “right to shelter,” which guaranteed a bed to anyone who sought one on the same day, has ended at least functionallywaiting for court rulings.
Two months ago the municipal Administration put in place a rule that until this week has been the center of high protests and criticism. Although also applause.
In summary, single immigrants who arrive in the Big Apple requesting shelter can only stay in these spaces for 30 days, and families with children, only 60 days. This does not mean that they are thrown out onto the streets, but They do have to restart the application process for other shelters that are not necessarily in the same county where they were initially staying.
The first families will reach their 60-day limit just a few days after Christmas, but it was clarified that they will receive extensions until early January. So far, notices have been issued to about 3,500 families.
“It will disturb the children”
This measure has been qualified as “cruel” by elected leaders, community leaders and immigrant support organizationswho this week announce new mobilizations to demand that in These cold and festive days, the municipal team changes these regulations.
“The 60-day rule is a monumental failure in shelter management for asylum seekers. This policy endangers the well-being of families that deserve stabilitywhile they rebuild their new lives as New Yorkers,” he has stated in various settings in recent days, the New York City Comptroller Brad Lander.
In line with this complaint, Liza Schwartzwald, Director of Economic Justice of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYCI) reasons that this measure, will disrupt children’s education as their families struggle to navigate the city’s complex systemcalling it “inhuman.”
In this same sense, Christine C. Quinn. , president of Winthe largest provider of family shelters in the city, He regretted that families are being “expelled” from their shelters.
“This will only create more trauma for those who have already endured too much. Since all signs point to the City “will force families to live in dangerous congregate settings”said Quinn.
Radical response: “There are no spaces”
Faced with the onslaught of some community groups and Democratic leaders of the more progressive wing, Mayor Eric Adams in recent hours has not softened his speech. On the contrary, has radicalized his position.
“We have communicated to the courts time and time again to make clear that The right to housing should not apply to a humanitarian crisis. New York should not be responsible for someone who comes from anywhere in the world, “ask for accommodation for as long as you want, with taxpayers’ resources,” the president said verbatim to the Fox network.
The mayor recalled that more than 150,000 people have been received by the City of New York since the spring of 2022, and to date the 57% have been able to leave the shelters to start their new life independently.
The pace of immigrants that continue to arrive until this week is 4,000 per week. Everything indicates that a large part of the people concentrated in the caravans on the border until this Friday, will largely end up in New York, Denver and Chicago.
Adams argues that the changes to the shelter rules have been an adaptation to reality: “There are no spaces. We continue to receive a wave that does not stop arriving. “Those who criticize us unfairly, without recognizing everything we have contributed as a City to a national crisis, do not offer a solution, only criticism that is far from the facts.”
The mayor’s formula to resolve this crisis, which has already begun to cut essential services for New Yorkers, includes, in his words, a national decompression strategy, federal funds, further secure borders and expedite work permits for asylum seekers.
Governor Kathy Hochul is aligned in this same vein.
The immediate path announced by the municipal authority is meetings with clergy leaders and New York congressmen.
“I have the obligation to resolve this as mayor. I need all New Yorkers to know that I cannot stop buses from arriving by law. And I am obliged by law to provide them with food, accommodation and all services. “The law has tied me down,” he highlighted in an interview. with the Fox network.
Migrants: “It is very little time”
With just a few days left before 2023 ends, the dynamics of “stability” of some immigrant groups that even They have stayed in hotels since last yeartends to change.
For example, the Venezuelan Javier Conde, 28 years old, He claims that he received an eviction order from an emergency hotel in Long Island City, Queens, and is currently in a desperate limbo. The adjustment process to another shelter is not so quick.
Like Javier, hundreds of single migrants have been waiting days to get a bed, and many spend the nights in increasingly crowded waiting rooms.
“I think it’s fair to give us more time and give priority to those who arrive first,” reasoned the man from Caracas who has 10 months living in an emergency hotel.
This immigrant assures that “his family is on the way” and that it is very clear that they will not receive the same benefits of the first wave that arrived in the spring of 2022.
The data:
- 3,500 families of migrants mostly from Venezuelahave already received eviction orders, in some cases they had already been living in emergency hotels for more than a year.
2023-12-24 08:04:00
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