New York City will start limiting migrant family shelter stays to 60 days, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday.
The new policy will require migrant families with children to reapply for housing in the city’s shelter system every 60 days. The city’s move is meant to encourage recently arrived migrants to find new housing.
“With over 64,100 asylum seekers still in the city’s care, and thousands more migrants arriving every week, expanding this policy to all asylum seekers in our care is the only way to help migrants take the next steps on their journeys,” Adams in a statement.
“This step builds on our work providing notices and intensified casework services to adults in the city’s care to help them move to alternative housing,” the mayor added.
A similar policy is already in place for single adult migrants, who must reapply for shelter housing every 30 days.
New York City is attempting to metabolize the tens of thousands of illegal migrants who have streamed into the city over the past year.
Since last year, more than 118,000 migrants have arrived, many of whom are still being housed on the city’s dime, causing New York City’s homeless shelters to reach their limits and forcing the city to open new facilities.
Recently, the number of arrivals has ticked up even more, with 600 migrants arriving in New York every day.
Over the summer, the city even resorted to sending flyers to the southern border warning migrants that there is “no guarantee” of shelter if they come to New York and encouraging them to pick a different city.
The city has already spent more than $1.2 billion on the migrants and is projected to spend up to $5 billion.
“This issue will destroy New York City,” Adams said last month. “We’re getting 10,000 migrants a month. … Every community in this city is going to be impacted.”
Due to the shelter shortage, Adams is currently trying to suspend the city’s obligation to provide shelter to anyone who wants it, known as “right to shelter.” City Hall’s attorneys are fighting the issue in Manhattan Supreme Court, and the next hearing is set for Thursday.
If the “right to shelter” obligation is not suspended, the city will have to find a place for any migrants who continue to reapply for shelter.
In response to the lack of space, the city has opened more than 200 emergency shelters with plans to open at least one huge “semi-congregate” facility that will house 500 families, which could conflict with state regulations that each household get a separate room.