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By ARIAMA C. LONG Report for America Corps Member / Amsterdam News Staff
New York City electeds and advocates gathered last week to protest Mayor Eric Adams’s 30/60-day shelter eviction notices, which are likely to affect housing-insecure school-aged children from migrant families as the city heads into another school year.
Adams enacted the shelter limit policy last year in an effort to stem the influx of asylum seekers and migrants needing sanctuary in the city. The rule initially focused on evicting adult men and exempted migrant families in shelters. The controversial move drew swift backlash from electeds, advocates, and the City Council, many of whom testified in a December 2023 hearing that migrant students missed school and had to transfer to different schools with long and complicated commutes, all while watching their families destabilize once eviction notices went out.
According to advocates, a total of 12,689 families with children have been given 60-day notices, including 18,348 children under 18, as of this August.
Last week’s press conference included City Comptroller Brad Lander; Public Advocate Jumaane Williams; and Councilmembers Carmen De La Rosa, Shahana Hanif, Alexa Avilés, and Gale Brewer, as well as organizations including Mixteca, NYIC, 1199SEIU, United Federation of Teachers (UFT), Advocates for Children, Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), African Communities Together, Housing Works, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, NYLAG, and VOCAL NY. They gathered at the Audubon Playground in Washington Heights, near P.S. 513 Castle Bridge School, where 16 families reportedly received 60-day notices.