(NEW YORK, NY) – The Legal Aid Society and Coalition for the Homeless issued the following statement on an additional right to shelter violation committed by the City, which they revealed today and which occurred on the night of Monday, July 18, 2022: “These continued violations of law and a court order, which impact some of our most vulnerable neighbors – including families and individuals seeking asylum – should alarm all New Yorkers. While we appreciate that the City informed us of this violation earlier today after a departmental audit, this notice comes a month after the violation occurred. We are still concerned that this Administration has failed to provide us with a plan for how they will increase shelter capacity to meet their target goal of a five percent vacancy rate. This is urgent because the vacancy rate in the shelter system for families with children was only 0.18 percent yesterday, August 17th, and has been below one percent each day since June 3, 2022. Without increasing the vacancy rate, there is a risk the City will run out of available beds and we will see further violations. As representatives of homeless families and individuals, and the legal team who secured New York’s historic right to shelter settlement, we remind the City that they must notify us of these violations in real-time. Failure to do so puts the lives and well-being of tens of thousands of vulnerable people at risk at their time of greatest need.”
