Old deal meets new reality
Yesterday afternoon in a downtown courtroom, the Aug. 26, 1981 consent decree called Callahan vs. Carey lived on. Despite Mayor Adams’ lawyers rightly asking the court last spring to modify the city’s obligation to provide shelter, now including tens of thousands of migrants — dwarfing the city’s homeless population — the old agreement remains unchanged.
However, it is still a victory for Adams, as the asylum seekers (here legally under federal law, but stupidly barred by federal law from working) will now be formally recognized as a different group in need and can be provided with different services better fitting their situation. That was the whole point of going to court last year. New York can care for 50,000 homeless New Yorkers in shelter. But adding 183,000 migrants tips over the system and has cost us billions.
The ad hoc rules that Adams has put in place to limit single adult migrants to 30 days in a shelter and 60 days for migrant families (with the option to reapply) have both proved quite effective, as the ever rising number of migrants in public care has leveled off. Those rules have now been made official and received the blessing of the court, the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless, the old plaintiffs in the Callahan case. That’s a second win for Adams, despite Callahan still holding.
In details hashed out in discussions between the city and the advocates under the guidance of the Acting Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Gerry Lebovits since October, the process of sheltering migrants has been written down, with the city pledging to fulfill its promises. People will be handled humanely and compassionately (such as no more having people sleep in offices), but it’s time limited.
The stipulation, along with its two appendices, was signed yesterday by the city’s top lawyer, Sylvia Hinds-Radix, Josh Goldfein on behalf of Legal Aid and Steve Banks for the Coalition for the Homeless. Lebovits also signed.
We looked back at the 1981 Callahan decree and saw that it was signed by a lawyer for the city, Legal Aid and the judge at the time (Coalition for the Homeless would join the matter later).
However, there was also a lawyer for the state attorney general at the time, Bob Abrams, signing that deal. The reason was that the lawsuit, then and now, was against the state, based on the provisions of the state Constitution. The defendant was Gov. Hugh Carey (a proud Irishman we note on this St. Patrick’s weekend). But Carey hasn’t been governor since 1982 and he hasn’t been alive since 2011.
That state defendant is now Kathy Hochul, a proud Irishwoman, who is presently both alive and the governor. The current AG, Tish James, recused herself from the case and Hochul has been represented by private counsel, paid with public funds.
Hochul’s lawyer was in the court yesterday, but did not sign the stipulation. The state Constitution still applies, so why did Hochul duck on this?
The city’s obligation to the traditional homeless, and now to the migrants, springs from the Constitution, which is not limited to five of the state’s 62 counties. Hochul has said that the Callahan decree is only for the city. We disagree. Someone should bring a case to make it a statewide mandate.