Mayor Adams suspends NYC review process for building shelters as more migrants arrive

Aid workers greet migrants arriving by bus at Port Authority. The city is looking to expedite the shelter land-use review process as more arrive each day.

Mayor Eric Adams has signed an executive order that temporarily suspends rules around the city’s review process for locating and building new homeless shelters — a sign of the growing urgency around the arrivals of hundreds of new asylum-seekers each day.

The executive order comes as the city’s shelter system is at or near capacity, according to aid workers and city officials. Adams announced Tuesday that the city is looking at 20 school gyms as possible shelter sites.

The order was signed Monday but published on the city’s website Tuesday morning. The city previously suspended its lengthy land use review process for the building of emergency relief centers, which are designed to serve as temporary housing for migrants. To date, the city has opened 150 emergency sites, including eight humanitarian relief centers.

But as part of the new order, the city will now include homeless shelters in that exemption. The suspension of rules — known as the Uniform Land Use Procedure, or ULURP — means that the city will not be required to hold hearings or submit to any of the typical approvals or recommendations involved in land use approvals. The siting of homeless shelters typically draws vocal opposition: Wealthier neighborhoods are loath to allow new shelters and lower-income neighborhoods say they are already overburdened.

In a statement, the mayor's press secretary Fabien Levy said that the city had counted “upwards of 500” new migrant arrivals a day. He said city officials expect that number to grow following last week’s lifting of an pandemic-era border policy that had allowed for the swift expulsion of certain migrants.

According to Levy, the suspension of certain ULURP rules would expedite the city’s process of opening needed shelter spaces.

“This is not a decision taken lightly and we will make every effort to get asylum-seekers into shelter as quickly as possible as we have done since day one,” he added.

The executive order, which took effect Monday, is set to last five days, although the mayor can renew it.

Joshua Goldfein, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society, supported the mayor’s action.

“Whatever they need to do to get sites open they should be doing,” he told Gothamist.

According to Legal Aid, seven buses of migrants are expected to arrive in the city over the next 24 hours.

The decision to suspend rules around the approval of shelters could face significant opposition from communities, some of whom are always expressing concern about the location of migrants in school gyms.

“A blanket suspension of ULURP is never a good idea,” said George Janes, a planning consultant. “You end up with land use by decree as opposed to a process where everyone gets to weigh in on it.”

He also questioned whether the ongoing arrival of new migrants constituted a true emergency.

“Is it an act of God or is it a management issue?” he asked.

David Brand contributed reporting.