NYC Mayor Adams reaches deal on temporary changes to 'right to shelter' mandate

New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Friday reached a deal with homeless advocacy groups to end his bid to suspend the city's "right to shelter" mandate in exchange for temporary changes to the policy to address the surge in illegal alien arrivals to the city.

He had originally sought to suspend the 1981 court order imposing the mandate to address the situation. Friday's settlement came after judicial mediation between Adams's administration and The Legal Aid Society and Coalition for the Homeless. 

"The settlement consists of a temporary crisis plan that takes effect immediately and lasts only until the current humanitarian crisis ends.  The underlying Right to Shelter consent decree has not been modified," the Legal Aid Society said in a press release.

Roughly 180,000 illegals have arrived in New York since 2022, according to Politico, stretching the city's resources and forcing Adams to pursue unconventional housing options such as former schools to accommodate them. In February of this year, Adams dropped a controversial plan to house new arrivals in an abandoned luxury apartment complex following local pushback. In January, moreover, a Brooklyn school was forced to switch to remote learning in order to house more than 2,000 illegal aliens in its school gym. 

Some of the influx to the Big Apple stems from Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott's efforts to bus aliens to major sanctuary cities in a bid to highlight the Biden administration's handling of the southern border. Adams, in February, suggested that the city's own "sanctuary law" was in need of modification.

"So if you commit a violent act we should be able to turn you over to ICE and have you deported," he said. "Right now, we don't have the authority to do so."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.