Fewer Migrants Subject to Shelter Deadlines as City Transitions to Unified System

As of July 20, of the 35,800 total migrants in city shelters, 80 percent are already in Department of Homeless Services-run sites. About 6,800 are in four non-DHS shelters where the 30- and 60-day deadlines still apply, officials told City Limits.

Lea la versión en español aquí. 

The entrance ramp to the Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing (PATH) office is long and steep, and on a recent warm summer morning, children ran up it while their parents walked to the front door. Some were dragging small wheeled suitcases. 

The building, run by the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), is the first stop for families with kids seeking shelter in the city. As of late June, that now includes migrants and asylum seekers, who previously had to complete their shelter intake at a separate arrival center in Manhattan. 

The city has been transitioning immigrants to a single shelter system under DHS, as it dismantles the extensive network of emergency shelters run by other city agencies opened to house migrants and asylum seekers over the last three years. During peak periods, several hundred arrived daily.

But for the last several months, only a few dozen migrants have entered shelter each week, as the number of those departing the city increased. Since June 2024, following the Biden administration’s implementation of new asylum claim limits, both the number of people crossing the border and arriving in the city has dropped significantly. 

The shift also means fewer people are subject to the city’s controversial shelter deadlines, which don’t apply to those staying in DHS-operated facilities. 

As of July 20, most immigrants had already been moved to the DHS shelter system: of the 35,800 total migrants in shelter, 80 percent are in DHS-run shelters, while about 6,800 are in four non-DHS shelters. 

Those who remain in the few non-DHS shelters will continue to have their stays time-limited as a capacity management policy, City Hall said. Families with children will receive 60-day notices; when their time is up, depending on capacity, they will either be offered an extension or placement in the DHS system.

“[O]ur understanding is that … if you need more time, just basically tell your case manager or someone on site, and you’ll be extended in place,” explained Will Watts, deputy executive director for advocacy with the Coalition for the Homeless, which monitors conditions in the city’s shelters.

“You’re not going to need to go anywhere to ask for an extension. So if this works like it’s supposed to, no one really should need to be going to another site after a certain period of time,” he added.

Migrant adults and families without kids in non-DHS shelters will continue to receive 30- or 60-day notices, after which they will be offered placement extensions based on bed availability.

“It was always the goal for the city to consolidate these systems. Our settlement was always meant to be temporary,” said Kathryn Kliff, staff attorney at The Legal Aid Society’s Homeless Rights Project.

She’s referring to the settlement reached last year that temporarily narrowed New York City’s right-to-shelter rules—which generally require the city to provide a bed to anyone in need—as officials struggled to find space for new arrivals.

“They are working toward a world where everyone goes through DHS intake, and that means that everyone is entitled to the protections you’re entitled to,” Kliff said. 

‘Not out of the woods yet’

Since the end of June, anyone looking for shelter—including migrants—should go to the DHS’s regular intake centers. For single adults, that means visits to sites in Manhattan, while families with children must go to the PATH building in the Bronx. 

During City Limits’ recent visit, New Yorkers without a home were visiting PATH, and only a couple of single adult migrants were looking for accommodation more suited to their needs. A man who asked not to be identified for fear of federal immigration enforcement said he uses a cane and is looking to move to a lower floor of the Wards Island shelter, where he has been staying for a month, so he can walk less.

“The young people, full of energy, were placed on the first floor, and I was placed on the seventh floor,” the man, 44, said in Spanish.

After entering and leaving a few minutes later, he said he and a friend had been referred to DHS intake for single adults in Manhattan. They said that they could not find anyone who spoke Spanish within the PATH intake center.

However, when asked about it, a DHS spokesperson said that 15 interpreters work in shifts at PATH every day to ensure that there are always interpreters on hand. In addition to in-person services, the agency also has interpreters available remotely through the city’s language line.

Since the spring of 2022, over 237,700 migrants have come through the city’s shelter intakes. From July 14 to July 20, fewer than 100 new migrants entered it, while more than 300 migrants left, officials said. 

“While we have made strides on the crisis, we are not out of the woods yet. There are still 36,000 migrants in need of shelter and services,” a City Hall spokesperson said.

As part of the scale-down efforts, the city recently closed several facilities, including the Asylum Application Help Center, located at the American Red Cross headquarters in Manhattan, which offered various immigration legal services, and the Arrival Center at the Roosevelt Hotel, where families applied for and extended their stays in shelters. 

Other recent closures include the “Reticketing Center” in the East Village and a network of “faith beds,” which were set up in religious centers to accommodate people seeking shelter.

The Reticketing Center closes

The city started giving 60-day shelter deadlines to single migrant adults in July 2023. That November, their shelter stay limit was reduced to 30 days. In October 2023, the city announced that family notices would be given to families with kids, and these started in January 2024. 

While people could request an extension after their time ran out, housing and homelessness advocates heavily criticized the deadline policy—and some lawmakers introduced legislation to ban it—saying the frequent moves were disruptive to families trying to stabilize their lives. 

The administration opened its East Village “Reticketing Center” in October 2023 to process all adult migrants’ shelter extension requests, as well as provide those willing to relocate elsewhere with free travel tickets to locations outside the city.

For months in late 2023 and early 2024, immigrants gathered outside the former St. Brigid’s School building, forming long lines as they sought shelter placements or extensions. Some arrived with their suitcases and backpacks, ready to request a one-way bus or airplane ticket.

The administration closed the site at the end of June. According to the mayor’s office, over 100,000 people visited the Reticketing Center to request additional time in shelters or tickets for onward travel during its many months of operation. 

“Over the past year, thanks to the successful implementation of 30- and 60-day time limit policies in conjunction with asylum seeker management strategies, including reticketing and case management, 84 percent of migrants have left our system and taken their next steps toward self-sufficiency,” a City Hall spokesperson said.

The mayor’s office said that migrants can continue to request tickets for travel through their shelter placements.

Faith-based shelter program 

City Limits first reported on the administration’s plans for a faith-based emergency shelter program in May 2023, and the mayor’s office formally announced it that June.

On paper, the plan aimed to establish a network of around 950 shelter beds spread across 50 houses of worship, which would offer overnight only accommodations to migrants so that the sites could continue their daytime programming.

However, the program, which cost the city less than the use of hotels converted into emergency shelters, took much longer than expected to launch, as some of the sites faced obstacles meeting code compliance accreditations.

The faith-based shelter program included daytime “hospitality centers” in different boroughs where migrants could spend the day and access services such as showers and meals.

Although the contract for this program was expected to last two years, the city ended it in late June, citing decreased need.

“Due to these closures and declining migrant population, we have been transitioning back to a single shelter system for all New Yorkers seeking shelter,” a City Hall spokesperson said via email.

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact [email protected]. To reach the editor, contact [email protected]

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.