New York City Comptroller Brad Lander has called for lifting the Adams administration’s cap on how many immigrants can stay in shelters, but thousands still continue to flow into the Big Apple each month.
“This is not a policy designed or implemented to help families achieve stable housing, self-sufficiency and integrate into our city,” Lander said Thursday outside the Roosevelt Hotel. Ta.
“It’s a policy aimed at stirring people through the system, subjecting them to test after test, and removing them from the shelter system, regardless of where they fall, without considering the impact on their child’s upbringing or education. Actual paths to stable housing, employment, and self-sufficiency were not considered.
In front of the city’s Welcome Center, the city’s comptroller slammed the city’s restrictions on admitting asylum-seeking families, citing his office’s five-month police investigation into police enacted by Mayor Eric Adams earlier this year. of accountants touted the policy as an important measure and support measure. Immigrants are leaving the city’s shelter system.
As of last month, more than half of the families in the city’s care had been evacuated from evacuation centers, with city officials working with families to secure adequate housing and officials saying the 60-day limit was a major factor. admits.
As of April 28, just over 10,000 households comprising 19,497 adults and 18,149 children had been given 60 days’ notice, according to the Audit Office.
According to the data, 51 percent of these families left the city’s shelters.
Between 1,200 and 1,500 new asylum seekers have been arriving each week for the past few months, a significant drop from last year’s highs when the number was close to 4,000 in a seven-day period.
At the same time, the number of immigrants in the city’s custody has remained stable at about 65,000, according to City Hall statistics.
The inspector general’s inquiry into family restrictions criticized the government for rolling out the policy “ad hoc” with little information to staff and families about exemptions from reapplications for shelter.
The study also found that the city’s “intensive case management” efforts to help families leave shelters had fallen short of helping migrants become self-sufficient.
“Beyond the brutality of the policy, our investigation uncovered significant management deficiencies in how City Hall manages evictions and how poorly they track their outcomes,” Lander said. “Our city can do better,” he added.
In addition to calling for lifting the restrictions, Lander also called for increased case management and education for asylum seekers in the city’s care, and to track immigrants’ effectiveness in obtaining permanent residence and work permits. recommended.
A call to City Hall regarding the investigation was not immediately returned.
