NEW YORK (AP) — Beset by the steady flow of asylum seekers, New York Mayor Eric Adams has imposed a 30-day limit on adult immigrants staying in city-run shelters to ease pressures on the battered system and perhaps deter other migrants who want to come.
Advocates for migrants and homeless people were quick to call the measure unnecessary and cruel.
But the mayor said it was “another step in our efforts to help asylum seekers take the next step in their journeys.”
Adams announced the new rules on Friday, after Joe Biden’s administration said last week that it will grant temporary protected status to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who arrived before July 31. This will allow them to obtain authorization to work in the country more quickly.
The federal government’s decision has long been desired by Adams and the mayors of other large cities whose shelter systems are buckling under the strain of the daily growing number of immigrants they must care for.
“We appreciate the support we have received so far from our state and federal partners, but we have more than 60,000 asylum seekers in our care, and without additional help we will be forced to continue making difficult decisions,” Adams said in his announcement.
Of the more than 60,000 migrants in the city, a quarter are of Venezuelan origin. Since April-May of last year, more than 116,000 migrants have arrived from the border with Mexico.
In July, Adams had placed a 60-day limit on stays in shelters, which his detractors say violates a court ruling that requires the city to provide shelter to anyone who requests it.
In May, Adams by decree mitigated the municipal right to shelter regulations, which is now the subject of a legal challenge. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat like Adams, backed the mayor, saying in an interview with CNN that the right to shelter was never intended as “an unlimited universal right nor an obligation of the city to literally house the entire world.”
“This just continues to put people who are literally trying to establish their new lives through additional problems and complications,” Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said in a statement. .
Migrant advocates have long pressed city officials to provide housing vouchers for immigrants and fund efforts to establish more durable, permanent solutions, such as expanding the city’s affordable housing stock — something especially difficult given That real estate prices in advance make living in New York City a challenge for many.
“I don’t think anyone wants to be in a shelter. It’s not like living at the Ritz,” she said. “Actually, for the most part, our newest New Yorkers have been placed in tents and really challenging spaces.”
Critics questioned the need for a time limit when the mayor obtained a concession from the federal government that allows Venezuelans a faster path to get jobs and become more self-sufficient in housing.
The mayor’s office said housing and other services could consume about $12 billion over three years, forcing him to seek significant budget cuts that will hamper his city’s ability to provide adequate urban services.
What others are reading…
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
2023-09-24 00:03:41
#Mayor #limits #immigrants #stay #hostels #days
