New York’s policy on how long migrant families can stay in shelters was “haphazard,” the study found

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City policy imposing 60-day limits on shelter stays for migrant families has been rolled out haphazardly over the past six months — with problems including the city’s failure to notify pregnant women that they may be exempt, a new audit by the city comptroller has found.

The city began expelling migrant families in early January to ease pressure on the strained shelter system. However, women in the last trimester of their pregnancies were exempted following news that a 26-year-old, who was almost nine months pregnant, was among those moving.

That policy was never actually written down or properly communicated to agencies, shelter providers or the women themselves, according to the report released this week by Comptroller Brad Lander.

“There was never a written policy promulgated. Staff and contractors did not receive that information. The notice you get when you get a 60-day notice does not tell you that you are exempt if you are pregnant,” Lander said at a news conference Thursday.

The city’s policy allows families to reapply for shelter beds, but does not guarantee another bed will be available.

To address concerns that children might end up on the opposite side of the city from where they go to school, city officials said at the time they would try to keep families in or near the districts where their children are enrolled.

But Lander’s audit shows that educators and families reported to his office that they did not receive this courtesy. It said at least three families at a Brooklyn elementary school left the shelter system not because they were ready, but because they were offered placements in other boroughs.

Lander urged Mayor Eric Adams to suspend the 60-day rule until the end of the school semester.

The report did not systematically document housing, health care or education outcomes for immigrants leaving shelters. Lander said the city has not done that either and only considers whether immigrants were staying in the shelter system or not.

In response to Lander’s report, the mayor’s office says the 60-day deportation notices — along with the 30-day notices for unaccompanied migrants — are one of the few tools it has to push migrants out of shelters.

“Nearly half of all families who have seen their 60-day notice period expire, and more than 65 percent of all migrants who came through our care, have left our shelter system – without a single migrant family with children being forced to sleep. on the streets,” City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak said in a statement.

According to the statement, fewer than one in five children were expelled from school after their family’s deportation order expired.

New York is one of the few U.S. cities legally required to provide shelter to all people who request it, the result of a decades-old lawsuit. In addition, U.S. schools are legally required to enroll minor immigrant students regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

Mamelak reiterated the city’s position that the Biden administration must fill funding gaps for refugee resettlement programs. These federal programs benefit virtually none of the 65,000 immigrants in New York’s shelter system — many of whom are asylum seekers or have temporary legal status, but not refugee status.

“A national humanitarian crisis requires a national solution,” Mamelak said.

Immigrant advocates say they must help hundreds of parents individually negotiate with shelter officials to let them stay in their neighborhoods.

Moving families between shelters is a daily problem for New York City Council Member Gale Brewer and her staff in Manhattan, who have handled dozens of cases reported by schools and other community members.

“We get a call, ‘They’re on their way to Queens,’ and we panic,” Brewer said.

Some schools in her district benefit from immigrant students due to under-enrollment, and homeless students provide additional funding. The schools are often a good fit for the students because they have a diverse range of languages.

Staff members, school staff and parent volunteers hurriedly collect paperwork for the children. To help families stay in their current housing or move to a nearby shelter, Brewer says city officials have adhered to an informal agreement — a system she likens to a modern “underground railroad.”

Cedar Attanasio, The Associated Press