NEW YORK (WABC) — Gov. Kathy Hochul announced 150 National Guard personnel will be deployed to help with the asylum seeker crisis as the amount of time allowed for migrants to stay in New York City-run shelters will be cut in half.
The governor’s announcement brings the total number of personnel to over 2,000, including 250 assigned to full-time case management.
This deployment, along with the millions of dollars invested to help asylum seekers gain proper work status, will not only help them achieve the American Dream, but also help business owners find workers, officials said.
The announcement Monday comes as New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to further tighten shelter rules by limiting adult migrants to just 30 days in city-run facilities.
The move is one the mayor hopes will ease the pressures on the city’s already struggling shelter system and perhaps dissuade more migrants from coming.
However, critics call the move unnecessary and heartless – especially in light of the federal government’s announcement that will extend Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, to Venezuelans, who had arrived before July 31, a designation that would allow them to more quickly gain authorization to work in the United States.
Meanwhile on Staten Island, local officials, leaders, and veterans gathered Monday to demand more transparency on the city’s new migrant shelter.
The new shelter was once the Island Shores Senior Residence and housed veterans and senior citizens — until they were forced to leave because it was being sold.
“I was really upset to think that our tax dollars as citizens of New York were being utilized to house citizens of other countries, while at the same time kicking out veterans, people who put their life on the line and other senior citizens who pay taxes their whole lives who built our communities,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis.
New York City says it has more than 60,000 migrants currently in its care, about a fourth of them of Venezuelan origin. Since the spring of last year, more than 116,000 migrants have arrived from the U.S.-Mexico border.
In July, Adams had placed a 60-day limit on shelter stays that critics say would be in violation of a court ruling that mandates the city provide shelter to anyone who asks for it.
Advocates have long pushed the city to provide housing vouchers for the migrants and fund efforts to establish more lasting and permanent solutions, such as expanding the city’s stock of affordable housing – especially difficult given real estate prices already make living in New York City a challenge for many.
Critics questioned the need for the time limit when the mayor had gotten a concession from the federal government that would allow Venezuelans a quicker path to securing jobs and become more self-reliant for housing.
The mayor’s office said housing and other services could drain about $12 billion over three years, forcing him to seek significant budget cuts that would hamper his city’s ability to adequately provide city services.
The mayor vowed to provide migrants with “intensified casework services” to help new arrivals survive outside the shelter system once they have reached the 30-day limit. Migrants who are already on two-month notice but have been unable to find other accommodations will be allowed 30 more shelter days, according to the plan announced Friday.
Over the past two months, the city said, 60-day notices had been issued to about 13,000 adult migrants,
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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