Migrant families from New York are allowed to stay longer in a shelter so that children do not switch schools

Migrant families in New York will be allowed to stay in the same shelter under a new city policy aimed at ensuring young children don’t have to change schools in the middle of the year.

The guideline is intended for families with children in kindergarten through sixth grade who have spent at least two 60-day periods in the child care system.

The policy, announced Monday by Mayor Eric Adams, will also create a centralized mailing hub where asylum seekers can access important government correspondence about their asylum applications and work permits. The proposal came after immigrant rights advocates said asylum seekers shuttling between shelters could not easily access their mail.

According to the newspaper, the population of shelters has decreased for 19 weeks in a row announcement. More than 223,000 migrants have arrived in the city since 2022, according to city officials.

City officials said the policy changes will benefit families and save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars on transporting students to distant schools.

“The new policies we are implementing today will build on our successes,” Adams said in a statement, arguing that it would “help even more immigrants take their next steps toward fulfilling their American Dream.”

The announcement drew mixed reactions from immigrant rights and housing activists.

“We commend Mayor Adams and his administration for finally listening to advocates and immigrant New Yorkers by issuing the new rules for shelter residents, which will ensure the educational and emotional stability of children living in shelters,” said Murad Awawdeh, the president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, in a statement.

He also urged the city to invest in more affordable housing instead of shuttling newcomers between different emergency shelters due to “unnecessary shelter evictions.”

Awawdeh added that a centralized mail center would give shelter residents access to legal updates and correspondence, “allowing them to more effectively navigate their cases and streamline their path to self-sufficiency.”

But Christine Quinn, the president and CEO of housing provider Win, said enforcing the 60-day shelter-in-place limit leaves “countless families in a perpetual state of uncertainty.”

She urged the city to help more families “on their path to permanent housing” through the use of housing vouchers, which are currently unavailable to migrants.

“While we applaud the city for limiting the scope of the 60-day rule, this measure disappointingly falls short of ending the rule in its entirety,” Quinn said in a statement. “Evicting families from shelter is inhumane, destabilizing and not a solution to this crisis.”