New York Gov. Kathy Hochul commits $20 million more in aide to tens of thousands of migrants

NEW YORK — Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday that the state will pour an additional $20 million into aiding asylum-seekers in New York City with the goal of helping them exit emergency shelters, secure work authorizations and manage their claims for asylum.

The newly announced outlay is in addition to $1.5 billion the state has already directed toward the city to address the migrant crisis, which has strained the city’s social services infrastructure since last April.

The new state funds are intended to speed the flow of migrants’ social services casework and connect them with services related to leaving emergency shelters and filing claims for asylum. It will be directed toward 30,000 migrants now being sheltered in facilities operated by the city’s Health + Hospitals network, the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

The new funds also come amid backlash toward Hochul, who has been criticized for not being at the forefront of the crisis.

“The path out of this crisis is work authorization,” Hochul said in a written statement. “Getting asylum-seekers on track to work authorization will help them become self-sufficient and come out of the shadows. New York State has provided significant humanitarian aid for more than a year, and we’re committed to continuing to support the city in managing this ongoing crisis.”

Hochul’s announcement comes the same day she announced the federal government authorized the rental of Floyd Bennett Field as a shelter for asylum-seekers and just days after her team and New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration butted heads in court over the city’s push to suspend the right to shelter law, which dictates that the city provide shelter to anyone who requests it within a proscribed time frame.

As part of the court case, the state submitted a legal filing that criticized the city as being sluggish in providing reimbursement documentation and sloppy in its handling of state funds.

Adams is out of town Monday in Israel for the early part of the week, but suggested last week that he’s open to Team Hochul’s constructive criticism.

“Whatever feedback my partner in the governor’s mansion wants to give, we want to hear,” he said. “But we also want to explain some of the actions we took.”

Getting migrants out of emergency relief centers and other shelters and into jobs and permanent housing is widely viewed as a key to alleviating pressure on the city’s homeless shelter system, which is housing nearly 83,000 people, as of last week.

Over the last two years, the length of stays in those shelters has increased, further exacerbating the migrant crisis, according to a report put out Monday by city Comptroller Brad Lander.

The length of stay for adult families averaged 885 days in the 2022 fiscal year, a more than 100-day spike when compared to the 773-day average stay in 2021. Length of stays for families with children also rose, although less sharply, with the average day count in 2021 climbing from 520 days to 534 in 2022.

For months, Adams has criticized the federal government for not doing enough to expedite work permits for asylum-seekers. But Lander has criticized Adams along those lines as well.

To obtain the permits, migrants must first formally apply for asylum in the U.S.

After weathering criticism for not doing enough to help asylum-seekers navigate that process — some of it from the comptroller — Adams announced in June that the city opened an Asylum Application Center, which is funded by the state and will also receive a part of the new $20 million Hochul announced Monday.

Along with that new pot of funding, Hochul also announced that asylum-seekers in city shelters will now be “triaged using a new color-coded scale.” A green status will indicate that there are no significant barriers blocking one from exiting shelter; yellow will signify existing barriers, but a clear path to resolution; while red will be used to denote more complex barriers.

“This triage method will speed exit from shelter, facilitate the connection to services or resources required to exit shelter, and put families on the path to independent living,” the governor’s press office said in its statement Monday. “Individuals and families will be engaged on arrival at the city’s arrival center and on an ongoing basis throughout their time in shelter.”

In a joint statement, the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless praised Hochul for allocating new funding for migrants, but also suggested that they’re taking the announcement with a grain of salt.

“The devil is in the details, and we need more information from the state, including a concrete timeline for transitioning 30,000 new arrivals out of shelter and securing those individuals work authorization,” they said. “We hope that this is the beginning of the Governor galvanizing the full weight and authority of the State to address an emergency that warrants a whole-of-government response to ensure the safety and well-being of our newest neighbors.”

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