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City Council holds public hearing about future of migrant shelters in NYC

The meeting came on the heels of Mayor Eric Adams announcing that migrant families with children between kindergarten and sixth grade who are facing their second 60-day eviction notice would be allowed to remain at their current shelters.

Rob Flaks

Nov 20, 2024, 3:54 AM

Updated 8 days ago

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The City Council held a meeting on Tuesday regarding migrant shelters in the city.
The meeting came on the heels of Mayor Eric Adams announcing that migrant families with children between kindergarten and sixth grade who are facing their second 60-day eviction notice would be allowed to remain at their current shelters.
The Adams administration argued that the change would save the city money on busing the students to their existing schools from a new shelter location.
The administration also announced a centralized mailing service for the centers to help track paperwork for Temporary Protective Status (TPS) and Asylum cases for those inside.
But not all New Yorkers are in favor of the change. Residents in Clinton Hill testified against the change. They are in support of keeping the existing 30- and 60-day deadlines. They say that the deadlines act as a deterrent and signal an end to the program.
"We support the children. Anything we can do, but not indefinitely," said community leader Renee Collymore.
Collymore held a rally in July calling for a decrease in the number of people housed in the shelter, citing concerns about conditions and violence.
Advocates for migrants from Afrikana, an immigrant services group that helps to process applications for Asylum and track cases for those inside that shelter, says they agree the population must drop, but say the solution is to increase case workers for those inside.
"The deadlines are a horrific policy and not a cost-efficient one," said case manager Adama Bah. "There is no language access, there is no case management. The city does not know what the needs really are. They have just placed everyone in the shelters and it's up to groups like myself to do that case management and help move forward the family's needs."
Bah says she supports the centralized mailing - a feature she says advocates sounded the alarm about a year ago.
"These are federal documents these people are receiving from ICE because they declared themselves legally to them at a point of entry, and so their cases depend on them getting these papers, she said.
Bah tells News 12 that the city told organizations like her’s that they would be implementing phone notifications of the arrival of documents for cases, but she says in her cases those notifications are rare.
She tells News 12 that she supports removing all deadlines, including for single men and women in the shelters.
"They are shuffled every 30 days. They have to prove they are trying to get work or ESL classes, and yet they may have no one who speaks their language to interact with to navigate that," Bah said.
But residents in Clinton Hill say they fear the funding is not there for that level of expansion, as they believe federal funding may soon end as the new administration takes office.