January 13, 2025 By Coalition for the Homeless Today, Coalition for the Homeless and immigration experts released recommendations urging New York Governor Kathy Hochul to take steps to ensure that more people do not end up sleeping on our streets and in our transit system. The recommendations were developed by organizations that work with, and advocate on behalf of, immigrant and homeless individuals – including Coalition for the Homeless, Catholic Charities, International Rescue Committee, Win, Center for Migration Studies, and the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility at the New School. The recommendations are aimed at ensuring that the more than 50,000 new arrivals currently in New York City’s shelter system get the support they need to transition from shelters into permanent housing and long-term stability. This would ensure that more individuals don’t end up unsheltered and disconnected from services, forced to survive on the streets. Given that families with children make up over three-quarters of asylum-seekers and other new arrivals currently in the City’s shelters, the recommendations will also help protect both individuals and immigrant households from the actions of the incoming Trump administration. “The last thing New Yorkers want to see is more people ending up sleeping on our streets, or families being torn apart and new members of our community being harshly detained and deported because of the draconian, xenophobic, and cruel policies of the incoming Trump administration,” said David Giffen, Executive Director of the Coalition for the Homeless. “It is critical that the State dedicate the resources it has to providing what every expert in this field agrees is needed to help new arrivals find housing and jobs and avoid homelessness – now, before it is too late.” Drawing from the deep expertise of dozens of organizations and experts in refugee resettlement, immigration services, legal services, reception and relocation programs, and services and advocacy for homeless households, the recommendations to Governor Hochul focus on two specific priority areas: 1) the need for actual case management for new arrivals in shelters, and 2) the need for enhanced legal services, including mandating the City to properly screen and assist each and every new arrival household for available immigration relief. The recommendations, along with a full brief outlining the resources needed to create a coherent system to permanently resettle asylum-seekers and other new arrivals, are available at: https://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/new-arrivals-recommendations/.
