City Hall says “nearly 11,000” people have jumped over the southern border over the summer and were initially placed in the city’s vast and scandalous shelter system. “In this new and unpredictable reality, where we expect thousands more to arrive every week going forward, the city’s system is reaching its breaking point,” Adams said in the statement. “As a result, the city’s past practices, which never considered busing thousands of people to New York City, must be reevaluated.” Adams’ statement never specifically mentioned the right to housing, but the practices he seeks to “reevaluate” are guided by the four-decade-old court settlement between the Coalition for the Homeless and the administration of then-Mayor Ed Koch. It required City Hall to provide a bed in a sheltered facility to every homeless New Yorker, which laid the groundwork for the modern shelter system. And the statement came hours after civil rights groups accused the Adams administration of one of the biggest violations of the housing requirement in recent years. Immigrants from Texas arrive at the Port Authority bus terminal in New York.Jeenah Moon/REUTERS “While we understand and appreciate the demands facing the city, the law is clear: Anyone in need of shelter, including asylum seekers, is entitled to such shelter in New York,” the two organizations said in a joint statement. “This principle has been settled for decades and is not subject to unilateral disruption by a new government.” However, City Hall disputed that the mayor was seeking a reassessment of the right to housing or the underlying legal arrangements — despite his statement. “Prior practices, we have to look at them all,” Adams spokesman Fabien Levy said. “The law is the law, but we ask that past practices be re-evaluated.” Levy also disputed that officials had ever acknowledged a violation of the housing court order after the Department of Homeless Services left 60 immigrants stranded in a Manhattan entryway Monday night, forcing them to sleep on the floor or on benches. Mayor Adams called for a “re-evaluation” of current policies. DANIEL WILLIAM MCKNIGHT Instead, he said DHS had notified the Coalition for the Homeless and Legal Aid about the failure to place the men because they were “overly communicative.” Officials did not respond to questions about how the 60 men had arrived in the five boroughs. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made a high-profile show putting immigrants on buses bound for traditionally Democratic major cities. However, the federal government has also sent recent arrivals to New York from the southern border, as have some charities. City records show the number of people living in shelters has risen to nearly 57,000 in recent days, up 25 percent from about 46,000 people in shelters in May at the start of the outbreak. The latest figures from City Hall show 7,300 homeless people were still living in shelters as of last Thursday. Both figures remain well below the all-time high of 61,000 hit in January 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic. Greg Abbott transported immigrants from Texas to New York. Shelby Tauber/Bloomberg via Getty Images Adams’ statement, released late Tuesday afternoon, also attacked critics of his administration’s handling of the crisis. “While some may want to use these extraordinary circumstances as an opportunity to play an unproductive game of gotcha, we remain focused on supporting each of these individuals and families who need our city’s help,” he said. Adams added: “We will continue to work every day with those who want to cooperate in this vital work to provide these people with the shelter and services they so desperately need.” Adams’ statement came hours after Legal Aid and the Coalition for the Homeless issued a joint statement Monday exposing the apparent violation of the legal housing requirement and criticizing the administration for not placing them in beds. On Tuesday, the two groups noted in their statement that City Hall had “added resources to the system to help prevent a repeat of what happened Monday night.” City Hall disputed that Adams was seeking a reassessment of his right to housing. William Farrington The apparent failure to comply with the court order was another embarrassment for Adams’ embattled head of social services, Gary Jenkins. The Post previously revealed Jenkins took a leave of absence in August as his agencies missed their own deadlines to secure additional shelter and hiring capacity to better manage the crisis. Officials have issued requests for nonprofit social service providers to find and rent up to 5,600 additional hotel rooms to provide emergency housing. An analysis by The Post found that rents for the rooms alone could easily reach $300 million a year. DHS failed to respond to inquiries from The Post over two days about the status of those efforts. Adams’ handling of the crisis drew the sharpest comments yet on the issue from Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens) at Tuesday’s news conference. Mayor Adams called for a “re-evaluation” of the policies implemented under Mayor Koch. Anthony Camerano/ASSOCIATED PRESS Her remarks were notable because she was more wary than her predecessors of openly criticizing the mayor’s office. “This is an unprecedented situation. The city is bursting at the seams and – frankly – it’s not ready to handle this influx of people coming in,” he said. “This happened suddenly. The city was understandably unprepared for this.” He added: “We’re going to have to find places to house these people because of what we say we are: We’re going to have to respond to that.”
