Adams Defends Right-To-Shelter Rollback Push As Case Goes To Mediation

NEW YORK CITY — A high-stakes dispute over the New York City's right-to-shelter rule may be going into mediation, but Mayor Eric Adams isn't backing down from his stance that the protection should be rolled back.

Adams on Friday defended his and Gov. Kathy Hochul's push to change the decades-old rule that guarantees a bed for anyone who needs it.

He said the asylum seeker crisis showed the city simply can't take of everyone.

"We're out of a room and the city is not going to accommodate anywhere, anyone on the globe and stay here on taxpayers' dollars," he told 1010 WINS. "That is not fair to taxpayers and it's not fair to the migrants and asylum seekers."

The mayor's firm stance on changing right-to-shelter came barely a day after a Manhattan judge directed lawyers for the city and advocates into mediation.

Advocates with The Legal Aid Society, who have argued Adams turned a deaf ear to productive solutions, said the coming sit down will help preserve the shelter right.

"Mediation will also allow for many of the measures recently put into place to actually materialize and live up to their full intended promise, including expedited processing of work authorization and the extension and re-designation of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, among other items," they said in a statement.

Likewise, Christine C. Quinn, president and CEO of Win, said the mediation will lead to real solutions instead of a legal battle.

"I am glad to see the court embrace a path toward a more humane, collaborative, and compassionate solution that ensures no one is left to suffer on the streets," she said in a statement.

Advocates have argued the push to rollback right-to-shelter will lead to asylum seekers ending up sleeping on the streets.