The Adams administration remains focused on getting New York City out from under its right to shelter laws, and a judge has given mayor's team one more week to make its case.
A judge on Tuesday gave the city one week to submit its motion in writing in court. Lawyers for the homeless are frustrated that after weeks of negotiations with the judge and state, Mayor Eric Adams is still trying to eliminate what they say is a critical right.
"It doesn't make sense right this moment for the city to ask to be relieved of its obligation to protect people from dying on the streets of New York," Josh Goldfein, a Legal Aid Society lawyer, said.
The Legal Aid Society expressed concern Tuesday after emerging from the latest closed door meeting with State Supreme Court Judge Erika Edwards on the right to shelter.
Judge Edwards announced that despite productive negotiations, the city still plans to move ahead in its quest to limit the right to shelter. Legal Aid questioned the move given all the new help coming the city's way from the state and federal government, including the opening of Floyd Bennett Field and plans to get more migrants working.
"To live independently in exactly the way that the mayor asked and yet just as that plan is getting rolling, we've learned today that the city plans to ask for permission to make a motion anyway to be relieved of the right to shelter in some way," Goldfein said.
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"We currently have more than 60,000 migrants in our care and an average of 10,000 more still arriving every month seeking asylum, but the Callahan decree was never intended to apply to the circumstances our city is currently experiencing. As we continue to seek a national solution to this national crisis, we know the status quo is not working for longtime unhoused New Yorkers or for asylum seekers," a spokesperson for Adams said.
The news came hours after a different judge on Staten Island said there is no right to shelter in New York and no emergency that necessitates housing migrants in an empty school building in the borough.
"The decision on Staten Island is wrong on the law and the facts," Goldfein said.
Even though Staten Island's Judge Wayne Ozzi ruled there is no right to shelter in New York, and that may be what Adams ultimately wants, Ozzi was asked to rule on the legality of housing migrants in the school building.
The right to shelter case was before Judge Edwards in Manhattan, who on Tuesday recused herself from the cast citing the potential appearance of conflict of interest without any details.
