Tuesday, January 9, 2024
Year : 1, Issue : 19
New York City is starting the process of evicting migrant families from city-run shelters if they’ve been living there for more than 60 days.
Dr. Ted Long of Health + Hospitals said 40 asylum seeker families are checking out of the Row Hotel at 10 a.m. Tuesday after receiving 60-day notices. Additional families will receive similar notices in the coming days and weeks.
Their children will go to school as normal and the parents will check out of the hotel. If they have nowhere else to go, they will be directed to return to the Roosevelt Hotel, the city’s main intake center, to request another 60-day placement.
The city will try to place families in or near the school district where their children are currently enrolled and officials say no child will be forced to change schools, as is required by federal law.
Long stressed “we’ve never had a family or children sleep on the street in NYC…we are not going to let it happen.”
Lourdes, who arrived in New York City from the Dominican Republic, and is a nail artist, says it’s been a difficult, confusing process. She and her daughter Rayleny will be moving to the Bronx when they are forced to leave the hotel Saturday. They have somewhere to stay, but migrant advocates, worry that’s not the case for others.
A protest was held Monday as critics argue moving children will disrupt their education.
“There is no leadership coming out of City Hall, in their effort to reduce the number of folks who need housing, they think ripping children out of their beds will make these families leave and go back to their countries of origin, that will not happen,” advocate Christine Quinn said.
When these expiration notices were given out to single adults without children the city found that about 80% had arranged permanent housing. The hope is that a similarly high percentage will apply to families with children but the city won’t know right away.
The city put the 30 and 60-day limits in place to free up shelter space. But some critics say it’s only causing more chaos, and on top of it, buses of migrants from Texas continue to arrive.
Last week, Mayor Eric Adams announced a lawsuit against the 17 charter bus companies that have been transporting migrants to New York City. It argues the companies are breaking New York law and should foot the bill for their care. Governor Kathy Hochul says she’ll consider showing the court her support for the lawsuit by filing an amicus brief.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says the lawsuit is baseless. He said on Fox News that Adams should sue the Biden administration instead.
“The lawsuit by the mayor violates the United States constitutions in several respects,” Abbott said. “And the mayor is going to lose and lose badly.”
Adams hit back at Abbott. “Governor Abbott’s continued use of migrants as political pawns is not only chaotic and inhumane but makes clear he puts politics over people,” Adams said.
He insists the city will not let the migrant families down.
“This is not going to be a city where we’re going to place children and families, on the street and have them sleep on the street. That it’s not going to happen. We’ve made that clear. I think we’ve made it clear, uh, to the point that everyone should understand that,” Adams said.
In the meantime, thousands of migrants continue to arrive weekly. Some buses have been arriving at NJ Transit stations to skirt the NYC executive order that restricts when buses can arrived at the Port Authority.
The Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown has served as the initial processing center for about 162,000 migrants who have flooded into the city since 2022. About 70,000 migrants remain in the city’s care.
Source: ABC New York
