NY Gov. Hochul says right to shelter can’t be ‘open invitation to 8 billion people’

NEW YORK — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, facing growing criticism from homeless advocates, suggested Thursday that a suspension of New York City’s right to shelter could help curtail waves of migrants streaming into the city, expanding on her administration’s case for the controversial step.

Hochul, a moderate Democrat, said the city’s unique right-to-shelter rule — which has guaranteed beds for arrivals in the city — should not be seen as “an open invitation to 8 billion people who live on this planet.”

“That is not sustainable,” the governor said at a Midtown news conference focused on her efforts to increase mental health resources for the homeless.

Hochul, who highlighted a $1 billion investment in the state budget for mental health services, asserted that she has done “more to help the homeless than any governor has done in the history of the state.”

“Do not read into my comments that we’re throwing out the right to shelter,” added Hochul. She has walked a tightrope on the rule — voicing support for the concept, but not across the state, and not in the city during the migrant crisis.

The governor’s remarks came one day after the state filed a two-page letter in Manhattan Supreme Court supporting Mayor Eric Adams’ efforts to pause the city’s right-to-shelter mandate.

As the governor addressed reporters on Thursday, religious leaders gathered less than a mile away at St. Bartholomew’s Church and called on Hochul and Adams to reverse course.

“Everyone deserves a warm, safe place to rest their head,” declared Rev. Adriene Thorne of the Riverside Church. “The right to shelter law is not just a legal requirement. It’s a reflection of the values of compassion and dignity that our great city and faith traditions hold dear.”

One day earlier, dozens of advocates held a rally outside Hochul’s office, chanting and holding signs as they pushed for the preservation of the right to shelter.

Assemblywoman Marcela Mitaynes, a Democrat who attended Hochul’s Thursday news conference and the Wednesday rally, rejected the notion that weakening right-to-shelter protections would dissuade migrants from coming to the city.

“Immigrants have always been an integral part of what makes New York City special, and I don’t think that’s going to change,” Mitaynes, who immigrated to the U.S. from Peru as a child, said in an interview.

Since spring 2022, more than 122,000 asylum seekers have arrived in the city, and about half remain in the over-stretched shelter system, according to government tallies.

Many of the migrants fled political and economic upheaval in Central and South America. The population of the city shelter system doubled in a single year.

The state’s Wednesday filing did not explicitly make the argument that pausing the right to shelter would reduce the flow of migrants. But it said the mandate has placed “unforeseen operational constraints on the city as it works to manage this challenge.”

The Legal Aid Society, which is fighting in court to preserve the right to shelter, said in its own filing Wednesday that the city’s push is “radical and extraordinary.” Legal Aid predicted a right-to-shelter suspension would endanger the homeless and create sprawling encampments.

In 1981, the city and state signed a landmark consent decree requiring the city to provide shelter to the homeless, after a Manhattan Supreme Court justice found a right to shelter in the state Constitution. The city returned to court in May and asked for the right-to-shelter pause.

Last week, the city submitted a filing offering new details on its request, seeking to exclude a broad spectrum of single adults from the mandate’s protections.

Dave Giffen, who directs the Coalition for the Homeless, a court-appointed monitor over right to shelter, said by phone that the state has failed to offer sufficient support to the city during the crisis. He urged the governor to provide more resources to the city, and to force resistant upstate communities to welcome migrants.

“Hearing her crow about all she’s done to solve homelessness is not sitting well,” he said.

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