New York City Now Sheltering More Illegal Immigrants Than Homeless Citizens: Deputy Mayor
_Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times (https://www.theepochtimes.com/new-york-city-now-sheltering-more-illegal-immigrants-than-homeless-citizens-deputy-mayor_5362706.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&src_src=partner&src_cmp=ZeroHedge) (emphasis ours),_
**New York City is now providing more shelter to non-citizens than to its own homeless resident population, according to the latest assessment from a city official.**
\_Illegal immigrants and their relatives take part in a family reunion event in Queens, New York, on June 25, 2023. (Yuki Iwamura/AFP via Getty Images)_ (
)At a Wednesday press conference, New York City Deputy Mayor For Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said the city is currently sheltering more than 100,000 people, the majority of whom are illegal immigrants and other non-citizens who are seeking to stay in the United States for the long-term.
“ **With over 50,000 asylum seekers currently in our care at this point, we now have more people seeking U.S. asylum than longtime unhoused New Yorkers in our shelter system**,” New York City Williams-Isom said.
Many of the non-citizens being sheltered in the city are people who illegally crossed the U.S. southern border but made asylum claims or otherwise requested legal status in the U.S. and are now awaiting a ruling in their immigration cases.
Since last year, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been busing illegal immigrants away from his border state to other areas of the country; particularly Democratic districts like New York City that have designated themselves as immigration “sanctuary cities.” New York City has been one of the main receiving points for tens of thousands of these illegal immigrants and many have stayed in the city since their arrival.
**Williams-Isom called the ratio of illegal immigrants to resident homeless people in the city’s shelter system “sobering.”** She said New York City has taken in 81,200 illegal immigrants and asylum seekers since the Spring of 2022, including “2,500 new asylum seekers” in the past week.
“You see from today’s numbers that we have reached a tipping point,” she said. “We now have more asylum seekers in our care than longtime New Yorkers from when we first came in and who are in our existing \[New York City Department of Homeless Services\] system.
NYC Mayor’s Shelter Strategy
Williams-Isom said New York City has opened 176 new shelter sites, including 12 humanitarian relief sites since last spring, but indicated the city has virtually exhausted its capacity to shelter people.
“We will continue to do our part. I might say we’re doing more than our part,” she said on Thursday. “But this is a national humanitarian crisis and we need sustained and profound support from the federal government in the form of financial aid and in the form of a national coordination.”
**Following a 1984 court decision known as the “Callahan consent decree,”** New York City has had to provide shelter for virtually all homeless people who apply. Last month, New York City Mayor Eric Adams requested that a court suspend (https://www.ntd.com/nyc-mayor-eric-adams-asks-to-suspend-right-to-shelter-rule-citing-illegal-immigrant-influx_921469.html) this “Right to Shelter” rule. New York City is also one of many locations throughout the U.S. that consider themselves “sanctuary cities,” meaning they do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities that might arrest or deport illegal immigrants.
Abbott has said his busing strategy has shone a spotlight on the hypocrisy of sanctuary cities that balk at the prospect of having to actually take, and share responsibility for, illegal immigrants.
In May, Adams began trying to relocate some illegal immigrants from New York City to neighboring areas of New York, with a commitment to cover the costs of their shelter, food, counseling, and other services for up to four months. Many of these neighboring communities have rejected the relocation efforts (https://www.ntd.com/nyc-mayor-begins-busing-migrants-to-neighboring-communities-prompting-backlash-emergency-declarations_918202.html), even issuing emergency declarations to block Adams’ administration from busing illegal immigrants to their communities.
Earlier this month, the Adams administration filed a lawsuit against 30 New York counties, seeking a court order overriding any emergency orders blocking his efforts to move illegal immigrants to those neighboring communit…
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new-york-city-now-sheltering-more-illegal-immigrants-homeless-citizens-deputy-mayor