Judge recuses herself as NYC seeks to suspend right to shelter amid migrant crisis
Sept. 26, 2023, 5:36 p.m.
During a hearing on Tuesday, Judge Erika Edwards said she was recusing herself from handling the case to “avoid a potential appearance of impropriety.”
In a surprise announcement, a Manhattan state Supreme Court judge has recused herself from the case that will decide the fate of New York City’s right-to-shelter mandate that the city has sought relief from during an influx of migrants.
During a hearing on Tuesday, Judge Erika Edwards said she was recusing herself immediately from presiding over the case to “avoid a potential appearance of impropriety.” She said it may appear that she has “motive to favor one of the parties” but did not add anything further.
The unexpected development adds a new wrinkle to what is shaping up to become one of Mayor Eric Adams’ biggest legal and policy battles over the city’s long-standing right-to-shelter rules. Based on a 1981 consent decree, the right to shelter requires city officials to provide shelter to anyone in need.
New York is the only major U.S. city with such a sweeping mandate. It includes single adults as well as families with children and is not conditioned on severe weather.
But the migrant crisis is now testing the obligation as city officials struggle to provide shelter to more than 60,000 migrants in the city’s care. City officials and Gov. Kathy Hochul have come to view the right to shelter as a “pull” for migrants at the border.
“This was intended to help homeless people stay off the streets, help families, but it was never intended to be an unlimited, universal right, an obligation to shelter the entire world,” Hochul said last week during an interview on MSNBC.
In May, Adams initiated court proceedings to suspend the city’s right-to-shelter rules in light of the crisis.
Following weeks of court-ordered negotiations with the state and the Legal Aid Society, which represents homeless New Yorkers, city officials appeared ready to have a judge weigh in on the issue.
The city has now been given until Oct. 3 to submit a revised application to the court. The procedure is considered a precursor to the city filing a motion to suspend the right to shelter.
That will likely in turn trigger a monthslong legal battle with Legal Aid.
Following Tuesday’s hearing, lawyers for Legal Aid criticized the city for seeking to alter a 40-year-old mandate that has been credited with preventing widespread street homelessness seen in other big cities like Los Angeles.
They have been urging the city to demand more help from the state and the Biden administration, and cited recent actions like the president’s decision to provide tens of thousands of Venezuelans with work permits as significant progress.
“The right to shelter protects people, their lives, their livelihoods, their well-being,” said Joshua Goldfein, a staff attorney at Legal Aid. “It protects people from dying on the streets of New York.”
Jon Campbell contributed reporting.