Most migrant families are living in shelters overseen by the Department of Homeless Services, which is bound by rules laid out by the state. So far the state hasn’t given permission to issue eviction notices in its shelters.
Thousands of migrant families could begin to receive 60-day notices to leave shelters in the coming days, where some of them have been living for the past year.
But the impact will be narrower than advertised by City Hall, which has said any migrant family could receive a 60-day notice.
Most migrant families with children live in shelters overseen by the Department of Homeless Services, which is bound by regulations laid out by the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.
And so far, the city has not gotten the necessary waiver to distribute the 60-day eviction notices in any of those locations, Anthony Farmer, a spokesperson for OTDA, told THE CITY Tuesday morning.
Farmer said OTDA had not yet received a request from the city to issue a waiver at the roughly 140 family shelters for migrants spread across the five boroughs and housing around 28,000 people, according to city data through the end of September.
Instead, city officials confirmed Tuesday they would begin distributing the 60-day notices at the facilities so-called Humanitarian Resource and Relief Centers overseen by Health + Hospitals, which aren’t subject to the same state regulations.
That agency currently runs eight large-scale hotels where around 15,000 kids and their parents are living, according to data from September. The city began opening these new types of shelters in large Midtown Hotels like the Row, The Watson, The Stewart, beginning last October.
Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom confirmed the city would begin distributing 60-day notices at these shelters first, but said the city was working with the state to be able to eventually give out 60-day notices to all migrant families with children.
“I think we will get there,” she said. “Because everybody is so concerned about how we’re going to take care of families and children and everyone knows that the only way that you can do that is to have some time limits and some intensive case management.”
Naveed Hasan, a parent representing Manhattan students on the citywide Panel for Education Policy, who’s worked closely with migrant children at his own childrens’ school and more broadly, said he thought the confusion around who would receive 60-day notices was deliberately confusing, to signal cause as much concern as possible.
“They’re doing a lot of messaging to new [families who haven’t arrived yet] saying, ‘It’s really bad here. Don’t come here,’ which is sort of the mission of this administration for the past month,” he said.
But still, for the families who do receive 60-day notices in the coming days, those are likely to expire around the end of the calendar year. Mayor Eric Adams said the administration aimed to work closely with parents ahead of their 60-day deadlines.
“No child is going to have their education interrupted, that’s the top line,” he said. “That’s my commitment to the city.”
Hasan said he didn’t think that was possible with families facing evictions and relocations.
“A move creates disruption and it affects a kids’ education,” Hasan said. “This is a complete disaster for school kids.”
