NYC could evict thousands of migrants from shelters amid new state policy change

A recent change in New York policy could grant NYC permission to begin evicting many of the roughly 30,000 migrant parents and children living in Department of Homeless Services shelters.

Anthony Farmer, a spokesperson for the state's Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, said the state has granted the city permission to begin issuing 60-day eviction notices to any family not receiving public assistance. However, they didn't say how many families with children are not receiving public assistance and will be subject to the new rules.

Some families are already starting to receive warning about a possible eviction from their shelters.

That was the case of Carlos, a Venezuelan asylum seeker who asked for his last name not to be shared. He has been living at a hotel shelter on the Upper West Side for the past eight months with his 6-year-old. He recently got a letter in the mail from the Department of Homeless Services that read "Warning— for families with children."

He may now soon be required to leave his shelter in as few as 60 days, he learned from the letter.

Carlos said the feeling of dread set in right away. His daughter had just settled into her school and made new friends. He hasn't received a work permit yet, which leaves few options for him to have a steady income.

"It's a government order. We have to follow it," Carlos said. "But we don't have anywhere else to stay."

The majority of migrant families live in roughly 150 shelters overseen by the Department of Homeless Services that operate under OTDA regulations, sparing them until now from the 60-day limits on shelter stays that took effect in January.

The expanded eviction policy is Adams' latest effort to tighten shelter rules for migrants, in a move to nudge them to leave city shelters, and to curtail the estimated extra $4 billion to $9 billion for their care over the next two years. This has caused an increasing number of migrants to sleep in tents and on park benches across the city, Gothamist reports.

The new measures have been met with criticism from immigrants rights activists, who warn that the new rules could lead to more migrant children shuffling between schools, missing class and living on the streets. Some critics also claim the policy to be unfair, as longtime New Yorkers are allowed to remain in shelter indefinitely, while new migrants are not.

But the Adams administration continues to defend their plans, with the Mayor himself pointing to other cities' use of shelter limits for migrants, financial concerns and "traumatizing" conditions in emergency shelters.

"It's not financially sustainable," Adams said. "And it's just not the right thing to do to human beings."