While shelter staff are the primary schedulers of appointments at the city’s Asylum Application Help Center, a network of community-based organizations and legal providers can refer cases too. Yet city guidelines obtained by City Limits stipulate the groups can only refer migrants who are “within 4 weeks of their one-year filing deadline” for asylum.
According to City Hall, since rolling out new stricter re-sheltering rules for adult migrants without children in May, it’s assessed over 2,600 shelter extension cases at the Reticketing Center, issuing over 850 approvals and over 1,780 denials.
While migrants can receive mail at the city’s shelters, many have struggled to track down important correspondence, according to legal service providers and advocates—especially after the city restricted the length of stays for both adults and families with children.
“With legal services to obtain work authorizations, language access so they can navigate our government bureaucracy, childcare so they can go to work, and education so their kids can get on the pathway to future success, immigrant families will be able to contribute even more to our city.”
Adult migrants without children seeking to extend their shelter stays will now need to prove they meet one of several “extenuating circumstances” to qualify for a bed beyond initial 30- or 60-day stints.
During the last two years, over 189,200 migrants have come to New York City and about 64,400 are currently under the city’s care; of those, roughly 17 percent are from African countries, according to City Hall.
The legislation, introduced in Albany by Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz and State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, would prohibit policies that restrict the length of homeless shelter stays—aimed at halting the Adams administration’s 30 and 60-day shelter notices for newly arrived immigrants.
“When we force people to rely on public handouts, we not only harm their perception of what makes America great, but undermine the important truth that when people come here, they want to work.”
The first evictions of migrant families with children under City Hall’s 60-day shelter policy began on Jan. 9. Since then, about 1,600 families have been forced to leave their shelters after their time expired, while another 7,200 have been given 60-day notices that will expire in the weeks to come.
“It looks like a coughing choir in that tent,” said Luis Zambrano, 62, who came down with pneumonia this winter while staying at the shelter complex on Randall’s Island, where the city has been housing thousands of newly arrived immigrants. “The cold that passes through and under the cot doesn’t go away with several blankets, so you are always cold sleeping.”
City Limits uses investigative journalism through the prism of New York City to identify urban problems, examine their causes, explore solutions, and equip communities to take action.
Founded in 1976 in the midst of New York’s fiscal crisis, City Limits exists to inform democracy and equip citizens to create a more just city. The organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded by foundation support, ad sponsorship and donations from readers.
Support local, investigative journalism that has informed and empowered New Yorkers for 45 years.
Support local, investigative journalism that has informed and empowered New Yorkers for 45 years.
