Mayor Eric Adams has renewed his executive order rolling back some requirements in New York City’s landmark right-to-shelter law.
NY1 has learned the exemptions will be in place for at least five more days as the city struggles against a tide of migrant newcomers.
What You Need To Know
- City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and the council's finance chair worry that vacancies at city agencies hurts services.
- The mayor's budget director cited the unprecedented cost of the migrant crisis as reason for caution
- Councilmembers cited rosier projects by both economists who advise them and independent economists
Under the order, as an example, the city does not need to grant someone a bed the same day they arrive.
Adams initially signed the order last Wednesday, but it was in effect for just five days.
The mayor has insisted that the city is out of space as more asylum seekers arrive.
In recent days, the short-term solutions have included sheltering individuals at public schools and opening a processing center at a once-closed hotel.
In Coney Island, 75 adult migrants are staying in a gym building separate from where students congregate, but the building is still on school grounds.
On Monday, community members expressed caution and outrage, but some were empathetic.
City officials also have announced that the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan will be soon be a migrant arrival center.
It will open with 175 rooms for families, eventually scaling up to 850.
Meanwhile, Gov. Kathy Hochul had penned a letter to President Joe Biden urging approval to use the federally owned Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn as shelter space.
“I don’t have a response yet,” Hochul said Monday. “I think it’s a very reasonable request to recognize it is a federal problem, and there’s federal assets, there’s federal facilities.”
Migrants who have crossed the southern border have been arriving in the city by bus, but also by plane.
At LaGuardia Airport on Monday, migrants were met by advocacy groups ready with aid.
“It’s not about having it both ways,” Power Malu of Artists Athletes Activists said. “You can’t say that New York is a welcoming city but then complain and say that people are coming here [and] there’s no space. We have to figure out a solution and the best solution is for us to coordinate.”