Over the past four decades, Coalition for the Homeless, working in close partnership with the Legal Aid Society and other organizations, has defended the legal right to shelter for homeless New Yorkers against numerous threats by various City and State officials. (Learn more about the history of the legal right to shelter here.)
The Giuliani/Pataki Attacks on the Legal Right to Shelter
In the 1990s, New York City’s then-Mayor Giuliani launched one of the most serious attacks on the right to shelter, announcing that the City would begin ejecting homeless families and individuals from shelter to the streets if they failed to engage in workfare or failed to comply with other bureaucratic requirements. Under Giuliani’s plan, children of ejected homeless families would have been taken into foster care with their parents left to sleep rough on the streets. Fortunately, a series of legal challenges by Coalition for the Homeless and the Legal Aid Society resulted in court orders blocking the Giuliani shelter ejection plan.
The punitive shelter ejection rules were based on a New York State regulation (18 NYCRR 352.35), issued in 1995 by the Pataki administration at the strong urging of then-Mayor Giuliani. An additional New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance administrative procedure (05 ADM 07), issued in 2005 by the Pataki administration at the strong urging of the Bloomberg administration, has also resulted in the denial of shelter to many homeless children and families.
In 2003, after years of litigation around the 1995 shelter ejection rules, the New York State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, First Department, overturned a 2000 trial court order blocking the City’s shelter ejection rules, and subsequently the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, refused to hear a further appeal. Since 2003, the City has attempted to eject more than a hundred homeless adults from shelter, many of them individuals living with mental illness and other disabilities. The Coalition, working in partnership with the Legal Aid Society, has represented dozens of homeless adults threatened with loss of shelter and has managed to prevent many wrongful shelter ejections.
Mayor Bloomberg’s Attacks on the Legal Right to Shelter
Mayor Bloomberg inherited and vigorously advanced the Giuliani/Pataki-era atacks on the legal right to shelter, and has also launched attacks of his own.
In June 2009, at the urging of the Bloomberg administration, New York State officials approved punitive new rules that will result in many homeless children and adults in New York City being ejected from shelter to the streets for 30 days or more, and that require many homeless families to make payments for the cost of shelter. Under the new rules implemented by the City of New York with the approval of State officials, many homeless children and adults can be ejected from shelter to the streets for 30 days or more for missing appointments, for failing to pay shelter “rent,” or if a homeless family’s welfare case is suspended or closed – something that happens routinely due to bureaucratic error. Similarly harmful rules have been in effect for homeless adults since 2003, and have primarily affected homeless individuals living with mental illness and other serious health problems.
In 2010, after an intense public campaign opposing the “shelter rent” requirement, the Coalition convinced the New York State Legislature to pass legislation eliminating the “rent” requirement and instead introducing shelter savings plans.
In November 2011, Mayor Bloomberg launched the most aggressive attack on the legal right to shelter for homeless New Yorkers since the Giuliani and Pataki years. The Bloomberg administration proposed new shelter eligibility rules for homeless singe adults that would effectively deny shelter to thousands of homeless New Yorkers, including many living with mental illness and other serious health problems. (for more background on the proposed rules, please look here.)
Coalition for the Homeless and the Legal Aid Society immediately filed a legal challenge seeking to block the shelter denial rules, and the City agreed not to implement the new rules pending the legal challenge. The Coalition and the Legal Aid Society argued that the proposed rules violated the Callahan v. Carey consent decree and that the City had failed to comply with New York City Charter provisions governing the issuance of new rules and policies. In late November, the New York City Council filed a similar legal challenge based on the same City Charter provisions. At a December hearing, New York State Supreme Court Justice Judith Gische declared that she would first rule on the City Charter issues and address the Callahan issues pending the outcome of the procedural claims.
On February 21, 2012, Justice Gische ruled for the plaintiffs and the City Council that the City had failed to comply with City Charter requirements regarding the issuance of rules, and declared the proposed shelter eligibility rules “a nullity.” As of late February 2012, the City had declared its intention to appeal the trial court decision and the Coalition’s struggle against Mayor Bloomberg’s shelter denial rules continues. In January 2013, oral argumanets were held in the New York State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division (First Department) on the City’s appeal of the trial court order.
Coalition for the Homeless and the Legal Aid Society continue to urge State officials to modify the Pataki-era shelter-ejection regulation and shelter-denial procedure in order to protect homeless children and adults — in particular people living with disabilities — from loss of shelter. And we continue to fight recent attacks on the legal right to shelter for homeless New Yorkers.
Mayor Adams’ and Governor Hochul’s attempts to dismantle the legal Right to Shelter
For over 42 years the Coalition for the Homeless, with our partners at The Legal Aid Society, has zealously defended and successfully expanded the legal Right to Shelter for anyone experiencing homelessness in New York. Throughout that period, there have been numerous unsuccessful attempts to erode this right despite dramatic increases in homelessness, primarily among Black and Latinx people.
On May 23, 2023, as the City continued to experience an influx of asylum seekers and other new arrivals, Mayor Adams launched a series of attempts to undermine the legal mandates that ensure that no one is relegated to sleeping on the streets of New York. Using the humanitarian crisis as a scapegoat for their failure to reduce the soaring preexisting shelter population, the Adams Administration asked to modify the Callahan consent decree to limit the City’s legal obligations. But the modifications sought by the City would have removed critical fundamental protections for vulnerable people and resulted in thousands of people sleeping on city streets, exposed to the elements.
After months of Court-ordered mediation, the Coalition for the Homeless and the City reached a settlement that prevents the City from adopting such inhumane measures and establishes a temporary means of addressing the humanitarian crisis without modifying the Right to Shelter. (The State did not join the agreement.) Judge Lebovits entered this settlement as a Court order on March 15, 2024 and it took effect immediately.
The Coalition for the Homeless and Legal Aid Society will continue to monitor the situation and will enforce the settlement to ensure all unhoused individuals and families regardless of the place from which they hail are not relegated to living on the streets.
Following are some important documents involved in the ongoing struggle to protect the right to shelter:
• Briefing paper – Losing Shelter: New York’s Harmful Policy of Ejecting Homeless Adults Living with Mental Illness and Disabilities from Shelter to the Streets (2009)
• Briefing paper – Protecting Homeless New Yorkers from Paying “Rent” for Shelter and from Ejection from Shelter to the Streets (2009)
• New York State regulation 18 NYCRR 352.35 – shelter termination rules (1995)
• NYS OTDA Administrative Directive 05-ADM-07 – Review of Reapplications for Temporary Housing Assistance (2005)
• DHS Procedure 04-416 – Client Responsibility [shelter ejection rules for homeless single adults] (2003)
• DHS Procedure 04-500 – Client Responsibility for Adult Families [shelter ejection rules for homeless childless families] (2004)
• DHS Procedure 09-XXX – Client Conduct and Responsibility [shelter ejection rules for homeless families with children] (2009)
• DHS Statement of Client Rights and Client Code of Conduct [homeless families] (2009)
• DHS Family Client Rights and Responsibilities Desk Guide (2009)
• NYC Department of Homeless Services — proposed shelter eligibility rules for homeless adults (2011)
• Callahan v. Carey – New York State Supreme Court, plaintiffs’ memorandum of law challenging proposed shelter eligibility rules for homeless adults (2011)
• Callahan v. Carey – New York State Supreme Court, affidavit of Dr. Ezra Susser challenging proposed shelter eligibility rules for homeless adults (2011)
• Callahan v. Carey – New York State Supreme Court, plaintiffs’ memorandum of law further challenging proposed shelter eligibility rules for homeless adults (2012)
• Callahan v. Carey – New York State Supreme Court, decision finding that proposed shelter eligibility rules for homeless adults violate City Charter requirements (2012)
• Callahan v. Carey – New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division (First Department), municipal appellants’ brief about proposed shelter eligibility rules (2012)
• Callahan v. Carey – New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division (First Department), brief for the plaintiffs-respondents about proposed shelter eligibility rules (2012)
• Council of the City of New York v. Department of Homeless Services – New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division (First Department), brief for the City Council about proposed shelter eligibility rules (2012)
