Yves here. This article from THE CITY illustrates in miniature the mess of US border policy. Biden substantially liberalized entry rules via executive order, producing a migrant wave that was so large that blue and Democrat-loyal cities like New York went into a mini-revolt and criticized the impact on their budgets and existing programs for the homeless. Even though this mess has largely disappeared from the headlines, the problem of how to house and find employment for these new entrants remains unresolved.
If you read the piece below carefully, it comes off as a complete cluster. First, some migrants might actually qualify for continued housing, but they are not told clearly who qualified and how to go about getting back in the system. Oh, those PMC complex eligibility requirements! Second, denying the migrants housing is in many cases dumping them on the streets. THE CITY reports that some (how many?) actually found work and/or have kids in school, but the loss of housing will upend this progress toward assimilation. Third, officials act as if these entrants can fall back on family in the NYC area, which is quite the assumption. Note that NYC is even offering to pay for transportation, as in make these refugees someone else’s problem.
Again I am not blaming New York City. This hot mess was dumped into their lap by the Biden Administration. This story shows that the Administration has yet to offer the needed level of assistance.
By Gwynne Hogan. Originally published by THE CITY on August 20, 2024
New York State officials have granted New York City permission to begin evicting many of the roughly 30,000 migrant parents and children living in Department of Homeless Services shelters, state officials confirmed Tuesday.
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. OTDA didn’t say how many families with children are not receiving public assistance, and thus will be subject to the new rules.
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.
While city officials made the request to begin evictions in DHS sanctuary facilities last summer, the request was only granted recently, Farmer said.
Around 20,000 parents and children in shelters overseen by two other local agencies, the Health and Hospitals Corporation and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, have already received eviction notices after 60 days, at which point they can reapply at the Roosevelt Hotel, the city’s main intake center for migrants, for another shelter stay.
Advocates fighting to protect what remains of the city’s right to shelter have urged the city to halt the time limits on family stays, calling them cruel and disruptive for vulnerable families who are just settling into schools and communities. But the administration of Mayor Eric Adams has defended the 60-day limits, saying they’re needed to help reduce the migrant-shelter population, hovering at around 65,000 people, and control costs amid more than $4 billion in spending to house and feed new arrivals.
“I don’t call them eviction notices, I call them time limits,” said Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom at the mayor’s weekly press Q-and-A Tuesday, confirming the new policy for DHS shelters.
“We’re telling people that they have 60 days and that they can see if there’s other places, other family members,” she said, adding they could reapply for another shelter stay if they have nowhere else to go.
City officials informed shelter providers about the new rules on a call on Monday, according to one person on the call who asked for anonymity, fearing repercussions from city officials. The call was marked by a note of panic, the provider said.
“‘What does this mean? What does it mean for the kids?’” the provider said people on the call wanted to know. “Where do they go? Do they come back to us?
A warning of the new 60-day evictions, obtained by THE CITY, was handed out to shelter residents this week.
“These notices will be distributed on a rolling basis beginning later this summer,” read a notice in Spanish that was passed out on Tuesday to families at a shelter in Staten Island.
“It is important that you begin planning your release from the shelter now that the children are out of school. Staff are ready to help you with this immediately. They can help you connect with family or friends and give you money for transportation. For help with these services, please contact shelter staff immediately. Be sure to plan ahead, even before the 60-Day Notices are issued.”
The flier made no mention of how someone might reapply for shelter. It also did not mention the exception for families who receive cash assistance — a small but growing number of migrant families.
In New York, migrants can become eligible for cash assistance after they’ve applied for asylum or Temporary Protected Status.
People from Venezuela, Haiti and other nations that many migrants hail from can apply for TPS from federal immigration authorities.
Neha Sharma, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Homeless Services said the 60-day shelter limit for families will roll out in the coming months, starting with a small number of families, with the goal of issuing the first notices to those who have had the longest shelter stays.
The NY Sane Coalition, a group of homeless and immigrant advocates including African Communities Together and WIN, the city’s largest family shelter provider, said the new eviction rule is “shortsighted” and “does nothing to address the longstanding obstacles impeding the path out of shelter nor the root causes of homelessness.”
Katie Honan contributed reporting.
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Interesting that there is not a mention of Governor Hochul despite that this was ok’d at the state level.
*NYC migrant crime, general riots ‘getting out hand,’ could drive residents from the city: ex-Gov. Paterson
-The city has spent about $5.5 billion to shelter and care for the flood of migrants who have arrived here
since 2022, The Post reported last week.
*RANDALL’S ISLAND, New York (WABC) — The New York City Police Department dismantled an encampment on Randall’s Island after they conducted a sweep on Wednesday and confiscated unregistered cars, motorcycles and mopeds.
This is Biden’s (and “Border Czar” Kamala’s) mess. How is it that the sneering traitor Mayorkas was ever appointed, let alone allowed to remain in his job?
How much more suffering needs to occur in the name of wage suppression? The migrants were let in because the first time in many years the workers were getting uppity, and now it appears that the ones that aren’t needed are being tossed into the streets.
As a native New Yorker who has been a California resident since ’15 – with a few of those years unhoused and subject to the fustercluck of support services that are available in the NorCal environs. Celebrity, activist, podcast host (and a friend and supporter of NC and our humble hostess) Harry Shearer calls Santa Monica “the home of the homeless” because of cold climate cities handing out bus tickets to their unhoused populations rather than deal with the logistics of providing warm shelter and support services. Several decades ago a significant number of homeless were from recently shuttered state-run mental health ‘hospitals’ (TV reporter Geraldo Rivera built his career on ‘breaking’ the story of the patient warehousing and abuse- I don’t recall him doing much advocacy for the patients once they were cut loose, fwiw). Quite similar to the orchestrated multi-city takedown of Occupy I smell the stink of the Democratic Party ordering the coordinated dismantling of homeless encampments, impounding of unregistered vehicles (people’s homes) and confiscation and trashing of peoples possessions. When I was on the street, about the only useful advice I ever got from the local law who were rousting us from our temporary sleeping spots was “out of sight, out of mind”. That won’t work in larger cities like San Francisco, where funding is being throttled and housing opportunities are dwindling in the face of epidemic-level increases in the size of the hopeless and increasingly addicted (thanks to plentiful fentanyl) populations of homeless (locals and those who emigrate to where the meals, services and drugs are.) A “seasoned” homey friend wisely said, “giving people a handout only makes things worse. What they need is a hand UP!” Given the recent signals from the mayors and governors of SF and NYC, looks like ‘na ga happen’. I also detect the smell of impending “FEMA Camps” as the likely ‘solution’. My two cents, ymmv.