Mayor Adams confirms migrant families with children must move out of shelter after 60 days

Mayor Eric Adams on Monday confirmed his administration’s intentions to follow through with a plan to force migrant families with children to leave their assigned homeless shelters after 60 days and reapply for shelter, a policy both homeless and child advocates are condemning for its potentially disruptive effects for children.

Gothamist reported the policy shift on Friday.

Facing more than 64,000 migrants in the city’s shelter system, Adams has been gradually rolling back services the city is required to perform under its right-to-shelter obligation, which guarantees a bed to anyone in need and sets minimum shelter standards.

The newest order will affect the shelter system’s youngest residents. Thousands of migrant children already enrolled in the city’s public schools will be uprooted from their homes every two months, likely disrupting their schooling through the transition.

But with city officials saying there are more than 600 new arrivals a day, Adams said the city is at a breaking point and is putting pressure on President Biden and his administration to act. Although Biden officials had previously criticized the city's processing of migrants, White House officials reportedly urged Chicago to follow New York City's "best practices" in helping migrants secure work permits.

“We appreciate the White House citing our ‘best practices’ as other cities also deal with this crisis, but with the current surge we’re seeing, a comprehensive, coordinated effort from the federal government to decompress the pressure New York City is under is needed now,” Adams said in a statement.

In another move that will likely draw criticism, the mayor said migrant families would also be housed in a “semi-congregate setting” at Floyd Bennett Field along Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn. The former airfield run by the federal government is expected to open with a tent-like shelter structure in the coming weeks.

The mayor’s press release described the shelter as having “privacy dividers with locks.”

The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless immediately issued a joint statement criticizing the mayor’s decision.

“This new policy, along with the City’s announcement that it will place families with children in semi-congregate settings at Floyd Bennett Field, will disrupt access to education, which has provided much needed stability for our newest neighbors, and also cause chaos for school administrators,” said Redmond Haskins, a spokesperson for the two groups. “We are also concerned about access to medical care and other vital services.”

The city’s shelter rules specifically prohibit families from being placed in group or congregate settings out of concern for placing children in dangerous situations with adult strangers. But Adams issued an executive order in May to suspend those protections.

Adams frequently says he is looking for new solutions to the humanitarian crisis.

The mayor recently returned from a tour of Latin America and the Darién Gap, a dangerous crossing between Colombia and Panama that many migrants use to come to the U.S. On Friday, he met with former President Bill Clinton to discuss policies in Colombia.

In a briefing with reporters, Adams said he was affected by how many children were making the difficult journey and described North and South America as one family.

“To watch our family members in general, but specifically children go through this is not the right thing to do,” he said.