Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and City Council leadership are taking Mayor Eric Adams to task for appearing to say Tuesday that a law enacted earlier this year gave homeless individuals the right to sleep outside, saying that was a right the unhoused already had.
Adams made the remark during his weekly off-topic press conference, referring to a law known as Local Law 62, to establish a “Homeless Bill of Rights.” He invoked the law in an attempt to illustrate what he sees as the hypocrisy of unnamed council members criticizing him for potentially letting migrants sleep on the streets, while passing legislation that said they have the right to do just that.
Hizzoner referenced the law when a reporter asked him how his administration was planning for the potential of migrant families being forced to sleep on the streets due to a lack of available space in city shelters.
“The City Council passed a law that anyone has the right to sleep on the streets. And I didn’t like that law,” Adams said. “Because we were trying to make sure that we don’t have what we’re seeing in other cities of encampments all over the place, the City Council said, ‘no, anyone has the right to sleep on the street.'”
‘Statement of rights’
The legislation became law in May after the mayor declined to sign or veto it, which let it lapse into effect. It calls for the creation of a “statement of rights” for homeless individuals in the city, that includes information about rights currently available to them — like the “right to sleep outside.”
“And now that I say ‘you know some people may be sleeping on the streets,’ people are saying ‘oh my god, what are you doing?’” Mayor Adams added. “Well, you just passed a law. You just passed a law that says ‘anyone should have the right to sleep on the street’ and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
But Local Law 62 did not create new rights, argued Williams — the bill’s prime sponsor — as well as City Council leadership and Legal Aid Society Staff Attorney Josh Goldfein.
In response, Williams charged the mayor is spreading “misinformation” about the Homeless Bill of Rights, saying it simply makes the laws already on the books clear to homeless individuals.
“It’s frustrating to hear the mayor scapegoat a law that aggregates, affirms, and publicizes the existing rights of homeless New Yorkers as an excuse for the failure of the government to address the homelessness crisis, a law he did not veto,” Williams said, in a statement.
‘Bad information’?
A City Council spokesperson, in a statement, echoed the public advocate’s point, charging the mayor provided the public with “bad information” that is “not true.”
“This City Council passed a bill to provide information to people about their existing legal rights under city and state law – it provided no new rights, as was falsely stated, and the mayor allowed it to be enacted into law,” the spokesperson said. “We should all expect the mayor and his administration to accurately communicate with New Yorkers about the law, which didn’t happen here.”
City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus later clarified to amNewYork Metro that the mayor was merely pointing out that the City Council had passed legislation indicating that New Yorkers have the right to sleep on the streets, but was not specifically weighing in on whether that was a new right.
Mayor Adams’ comments come as he has repeatedly said it is not a matter of “if” but “when” migrants will be relegated to sleeping on the streets, because the city has reached capacity in its shelter system. More than 130,000 migrants have arrived in the city since April 2022, with some 65,000 still in the city’s care.
Last week, the mayor said the city is preparing for the reality of migrants sleeping outside by looking to “manage” and “localize” scores of people living in encampments to specific outdoor areas.
The administration is also eyeing handing out tents to newly arrived migrants to sleep in the designated outdoor spaces the mayor referenced, according to published reports from last week.
The risk of homeless individuals being relegated to the streets has increased since the city implemented both 30-day shelter stay limits for single adults and 60-day limits for families with children living in shelters outside the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) system.
Additionally, several shelters have been shut down due to the FDNY deeming they did not have sufficient fire safety measures, like sprinkler systems and fire alarms.
