Old court case on homeless is making Hochul move on migrants

On May 23, just three months ago, a lawyer who has worked for the City of New York’s Law Department for 39 years wrote to Deborah Kaplan, the deputy chief administrative judge for New York City Courts, asking for a very old case concerning the right to shelter be reopened and Kaplan to assign a judge to the matter. The reason was that the tens of thousands migrants streaming into New York were overwhelming the city’s ability to care for people here, as is required under the consent decree agreed to decades ago.

How old a case? It started on Oct. 2, 1979, when New York State was sued (and its subdivision, New York City) to provide shelter for homeless men under the state Constitution. At the time, nearly 44 years ago, that long-tenured city lawyer, Jon Pines, was three years before he got his law license. He became a registered attorney in 1982, a year after Callahan vs. Carey settled. The administrative judge, Kaplan, would get licensed herself five years later, in 1986, and the judge she assigned, Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Erika Edwards, wouldn’t get her law license until 1994.

We dig up the ancient history because in reactivating the case to try to ease the court-approved deal under the weight of the massive migrant numbers (now more than 100,000) Mayor Adams and his administration have now roped in a reluctant state government and Gov. Hochul.

For all his imploring and requesting and cajoling for help from Albany, Adams has had limited success in engaging Hochul, who while asking President Biden to invoke his executive powers on expediting work authorization for the migrants, still refuses to exercise her own executive authority to override the xenophobic migrant bans being thrown up by dozens of counties across the state.

The state is also still refusing to pick up a fair share of the billions in costs. Adams proposed a three-way equal city/state/federal split. And with the feds AWOL on this (hello there congressional delegation, anyone home?), the mayor wants Albany to cover two-thirds. Without Washington, a 50/50 state/city share is far better than almost everything being absorbed by New York City.

Last week, Hochul said of the consent decree: “This is an agreement that does not apply to the state’s other 57 counties, which is one of the reasons we cannot and will not force other parts of our state to shelter migrants, nor are we going to be asking these migrants to move to other parts of the state against their will.”

She is wrong, as the agreement’s basis is the state Constitution, which applies in those same 57 counties. She is also wrong as no one is seeking to force those localities to shelter migrants (that is pay for them). Adams simply wants to pay (hopefully with state and federal help) for lodging, food and medical care. And finally, Hochul is wrong a third time as no one is sending migrants anywhere against their will. The governor must do better.

Under direction from Justice Edwards now overseeing the old Callahan case, Hochul is now being compelled to share responsibility and we are confident that the governor will do better, even if forced to by the courts.

The Daily News Flash

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