Judge puts onus on state to respond to NYC migrant crisis after right-to-shelter violation

A New York state Supreme Court judge is ordering state officials to help address the city’s increasingly difficult task of meeting its right-to-shelter obligation, after scores of mostly adult male migrants spent several days this week sleeping outside a shelter intake center in Midtown.

At an emergency hearing on Friday requested by the Legal Aid Society, Judge Erika Edwards outlined a process in which the city would provide the state with a list of state and federal resources it requires to continue sheltering and caring for migrants.

The order puts pressure on Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has provided the city with financial support for migrants but has yet to treat the yearlong humanitarian crisis with the urgency that advocates argue she should. The order also represents something of a vindication for Mayor Eric Adams, who has begged state and federal leaders for more assistance in combating a crisis that has landed on the city’s doorstep.

"As we’ve known since the early days of this crisis, this is not just a New York City emergency, but a crisis that requires support from the state and federal governments," Adams said in a statement following the hearing. "We need all of our partners to step up and treat this crisis like the emergency that it is, instead of abandoning New York City to provide shelter and care for more than 95,000 asylum seekers by ourselves."

The state must respond to the city’s requests by Aug. 15, one day before the next scheduled court date.

“The state has not taken ownership of what is a statewide issue,” Josh Goldfein, a staff attorney for Legal Aid, told reporters after the judge’s decision. “There are places around the state [where] they could be sheltered. There are labor shortages around the state. There are communities that would welcome people.”

The bulk of the state’s assistance has come in the form of roughly $1 billion in funding. That’s significantly more than what the federal government has offered to combat a national problem. It’s also far less than the $4 billion Adams has said will be required to meet the crisis.

Hochul has also helped the city secure state-controlled sites, such as a former psychiatric facility in Queens, to use as shelters.

But Goldfein said more could be done and that Hochul could issue an executive order requiring local municipalities and counties to shelter some of the migrants. Based on the lawsuits generated by Adams’ attempts to send migrants to Orange and Rockland counties, that would almost certainly spark a political firestorm for Hochul, who came close to losing to Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin in last year's gubernatorial election.

Legal Aid has been fighting the city’s request to roll back the right to shelter, a unique 40-year-old mandate that requires the city to provide a bed to anyone who requests one. The state is a party in the proceedings; it was one of the defendants along with the city under the original 1981 legal case that won the right to shelter for homeless New Yorkers.

Friday’s court proceeding was triggered after Legal Aid filed a request for an emergency meeting with city and state officials after migrants were seen sleeping outside the city's intake center at the Roosevelt Hotel for days.

Adams said earlier this week that the situation was not going to improve.

“From this moment on it's downhill,” he said. “There is no more room.”

After a letter on Wednesday from Legal Aid to the court seeking the emergency hearing, city officials found temporary shelter for the migrants who had been sleeping outside.

City officials found temporary shelter for the migrants who had been sleeping outside the Roosevelt Hotel after Legal Aid sought the emergency hearing in a letter to the court on Wednesday

The governor's office ticked off a list of ways it's aided the city — including funding, assigning over 1,700 of National Guard members to assist the migrants, use of state sites for shelters, and pressure on federal officials — but declined to comment on the record citing the pending litigation.

This story has been updated with additional information and comment from Mayor Adams.