City Hall Misses Deadline to Comply With Council Law Requiring Migrant Shelter Surveys

Lawmakers say the ordinance is intended to help the city better respond to the requirements of the nearly displaced persons still in its shelter system There s honestly no excuse noted City Councilmember Alexa Avil s who chairs the Council s Immigration Committee We have a very large population that it s tending to and they haven t disappeared They are still here A woman and her daughter staying at one of the city s hotel shelters for families early last year In contemporary months the city has closed the greater part of those facilities as the number of new arrivals declines Ado Talwar City Limits Under a local law passed last year the city was required to survey newcomers in the shelter system about their workforce enhancement and wellness requirements and share the results in a account for the City Council by Sept But almost a month later the Adams administration has yet to submit those findings and has not yet started administering the surveys City Limits has learned The advancement of studies of this magnitude takes time and deliberate coordination across multiple city agencies to ensure that the survey is accurate rigorously distributed and yields the necessary and reliable results needed mentioned a spokesperson for the New York City Department of Robustness and Mental Hygiene DOHMH one of the two city agencies tasked with conducting the surveys Councilmembers and immigrant advocates criticized the delay saying the decree is intended to help the city better respond to the necessities of immigrants in its care While the number of new arrivals has been decreasing for months there are still nearly in the shelter system greater part of them families with children function d u ac var s d createElement 'script' s type 'text javascript' s src 'https a omappapi com app js api min js' s async true s dataset user u s dataset campaign ac d getElementsByTagName 'head' appendChild s document 'u kmqsczew vunxutxmd' I m incredibly frustrated by all of this There s honestly no excuse other than lack of interest in being able to meet the mandates of the law stated City Councilmember Alexa Avil s who chairs the Council s Immigration Committee We have a very large population that it s tending to and they haven t disappeared They are still here Under the bills passed last year two city agencies were tasked with conducting the surveys The Department of Strength is responsible for surveying displaced persons about their long-term wellbeing demands chronic conditions and access to healthcare as part of Local Law The Mayor s Office of Talent and Workforce Evolution created by the Eric Adams administration in through an executive order is in charge of surveying their economic opportunities and workforce growth obstacles under Local Law The surveys should have been given to incident managers and on-site shelter staff months ago in November according to the ordinance The results were supposed to be provided to the commissioner of these agencies no later than May We are diligently working with our agency partners and we re happy to share that the survey will be live within the next limited weeks a DOHMH spokesperson commented though did not provide an exact date or other details In addition to time projects of this magnitude require careful reflection of the region we are attempting to reach and how we can reach them without increasing the fear and worry they may already be experiencing the spokesperson disclosed Over the last insufficient months federal agents have increased arrests as part of the Trump administration s ongoing immigration crackdown including at New York City courts and on the streets They not long ago arrested people outside the Row Hotel a city-operated exigency migrant shelter and targeted vendors on a busy street in Chinatown At the same time the city has been shutting down its system of emergency shelters for newcomers as fewer new arrivals enter the system The majority of migrant families are now housed in traditional shelter sites run by the Department of Homeless Services window addEventListener message function a if void a material datawrapper-height var e document querySelectorAll iframe for var t in a content datawrapper-height for var r i r e i i if r contentWindow a source var d a material datawrapper-height t px r style height d The mayoral administration is inexplicably behind by nearly a year to develop and distribute these surveys amongst the city s newest immigrants who have now mostly exited city shelters a City Council spokesperson declared in a declaration This failure is a squandered opportunity to learn from the latest wave of migration to New York City The execution of the surveys is not the only Council law the Adams administration has delayed another bill to allow people to document poor conditions in vacant apartments in their building has still yet to be implemented City Hall has also refused to carry out a package of laws expanding the city s rental voucher campaign a dispute now playing out in court The city s inability to complete a survey among a now small number of asylum-seekers who remain stuck in our shelter system showcases the failure of this administration to prioritize the demands of our bulk vulnerable populations Carlos Arnao of the New York Immigration Coalition noted in a declaration to City Limits We urge Mayor Adams to take proactive efforts to comply with the law during the remaining months of his lame-duck administration To reach the reporter behind this story contact Daniel citylimits org To reach the editor contact Jeanmarie citylimits org Want to republish this story Find City Limits reprint program here The post City Hall Misses Deadline to Comply With Council Law Requiring Migrant Shelter Surveys appeared first on City Limits