Over the past three 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.)
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.
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.
The punitive shelter ejection rules are based on a New York State regulation (18 NYCRR 352.35), issued in 1995 by the Pataki administration at the strong urging of then-New York City 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 homeless children and families.
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.
Following are some important documents involved in the ongoing struggle to protect the right to shelter:
• New York State regulation 18 NYCRR 352.35 - shelter termination rules (1995)
• DHS Statement of Client Rights and Client Code of Conduct [homeless families] (2009)
• DHS Family Client Rights and Responsibilities Desk Guide (2009)