NEW YORK (1010 WINS/ WCBS 880 NEWS) – New York City Comptroller Brad Lander announced an investigation on Thursday into Mayor Eric Adams' enforcement of the 60-day limit on migrant families with children staying in city shelters, a significant change from the previous policy of indefinite stay.
“I really don't know what could be more cruel than what the city of New York is doing right now,” Lander said at a press conference.
The investigation aims to evaluate the impact and costs related to the 60-day rule, including its process and implementation. Landers said that they will also examine the services provided by the City to asylum-seeking families, focusing on how these services affect living conditions, work authorization, and employment opportunities.
Additionally, the investigation will consider the potential school transfers of children from migrant families enrolled in public schools, a direct consequence of enforcing the 60-day rule.
“The Administration is implementing one of the cruelest policies to come from City Hall in generations, evicting families from shelter in the middle of winter, and displacing kids from their schools in the middle of the school year,” Lander said.
The initial 60-day eviction notice given to families in a shelter in October 2023 would have forced them out the week of Dec. 25, 2023. However, the displacement was postponed, with the new start date for evictions set for Jan. 9, 2024, allowing families to stay through the holiday season.
Evictions have now begun across the city, with 4,400 families receiving 60-day notices, according to Anne Williams Isom, deputy mayor of NYC Health and Human Services.
Those unable to relocate out of the system will eventually return to the processing center at the Roosevelt Hotel.
Poor communication from the City has left asylum-seeking families facing eviction uncertain about their departure dates and the availability of new accommodations, according to Landers. Additionally, extending the 30-day limit for single adults in late November resulted in long lines of people waiting in the cold for hours to reapply for shelter.
Lander responded to a question about the situation being a city shell game. “I wish it were a shell game in a shell game,” he said. “You're always underneath a roof, and sometimes there's even a shell that doesn't have someone in it. This is like a shell game without the shells.”
“What you don't want to do is create a permanent state where people are living in these unstable environments,” Adams said during a press conference.
New York City is currently home to over 66,000 migrants, with over 140,000 having been transported to the city.