NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – New York City's legal battle to suspend its unique right-to-shelter mandate is heading for mediation, the Legal Aid Society announced on Thursday.
Just a day prior, the Legal Aid Society had submitted a failing supporting mediation and cautioning that a suspension of the right-to-shelter could result in "mass street homelessness" as winter approaches.
However, Mayor Eric Adams does not agree on the matter. "Five billion dollars we're going to have to bear during this fiscal year,” Adams told 1010 WINS on Friday. “This is not right for New Yorkers to pick up the cost."
The mayor has challenged the right-to-shelter agreement in court, and it is now set to enter mediation.
"We are getting anywhere from 16,000 [migrants] a month, 4,000 a week, and 130,000 have come through the city system—64,000 are currently in the city's care," Adams said.
He noted the unprecedented numbers of people arriving, with 7 million reportedly fleeing Venezuela, calling the situation "frightening."
The number of asylum seekers arriving in the city are on the rise and Adams does not want New Yorkers paying for it.
“We need to send a message," Adams said. "We're out of room and the city is not going to accommodate anyone off anywhere on the globe, and stay here on taxpayers' dollars.”
The Legal Aid Society, which opposes the suspension of the right-to-shelter, views mediation as an opportunity to allow recently implemented measures to take full effect.
“Mediation will also allow for many of the measures recently put into place to actually materialize and live up to their full intended promise, including expedited processing of work authorization and the extension and redesignation of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, among other items,” the Legal Aid Society said in a statement on Thursday.
Mediation does not involve a determination of the outcome by the mediator. If mediation efforts fail, the judge would return to the role of determining the outcome.
Both the city and the state, which supports the city's pursuit of suspension, have agreed to continue discussions.
City officials are currently seeking a modification to the 40-year-old Callahan decree, given the increasing migrant influx, and they filed this request on Oct. 4.
The proposed change also seeks an exemption from providing shelter to single adults in certain emergency situations.
The Callahan decree, established in 1981, originally granted shelter rights to the city's homeless population, later extending to women and families. The new proposal, pending a judge's approval, aims to impact all homeless single adults, not limited to newly arrived migrants, the Legal Aid Society argues.
In response to the ongoing crisis, New York City has opened more than 210 emergency facilities and allocated over $2 billion in the past year.