NYC migrant families fear kids will be sleeping in the streets as shelter deadlines near

As the first wave of families seeking asylum in New York City push up against 60-day notice deadlines to leave emergency housing, migrants fear they and their children will end up on the street during the coldest months of the year.

While the city briefly delayed evictions until after the holidays, an estimated 4,800 families with children have been served 60-day notices to leave the city’s care or reapply for shelter, according to city data. The first wave of evictions is expected to start within days, possibly on Jan. 9.

Mayor Eric Adams’ policy, billed as a way to free up space in the shelter system, makes no guarantees that new shelters — if found at all — will be near schools children currently attend or temporary jobs parents have secured. A dearth of information and public plans have left many migrants confused and unsure about what comes next.

“We don’t know where we’re going to go,” Marco Loja, 41, who will be forced out of The Row in Midtown Manhattan later this month, said in Spanish. “Either they’re going to send us somewhere else or, well, we don’t know.”

Migrant families at The Row and other emergency shelters across the city are facing a frightening unknown. They say information has been scant as they navigate how to reapply for shelter and where they will be sent — or if they’ll be left outside or sleeping on a floor somewhere.

The fears reflect what they’ve seen happen to the single adults who’ve lost their sports at city shelters in recent weeks.

After single adult migrants resorted to sleeping on the pavement outside a reticketing center in Manhattan’s East Village last month, a new worry has taken hold: Will the city uphold its unique right to shelter for its most young and vulnerable new arrivals? Some advocates fear the city is doomed to repeat the same mistake with families.

“We’re going to have children who next Tuesday are not going to have a place to sleep that night,” said Liza Schwartzwald, who directs family advocacy at the New York Immigration Coalition. “We’re less than a week from this date, and the fact that the city has not given any additional instruction to families … It’s a freezing week. It’s going to be 30s every night.”

Henry Hernandez, 39, is desperate for help so he and his wife and two daughters “don’t end up on the street.”

The family’s last day at their emergency shelter at The Row in Midtown Manhattan is Jan. 22, according to his notice reviewed by the Daily News. The timing could not be worse. After months of waiting, Hernandez is close to being able to support his family without city help but that may be threatened by the impending move.

Hernandez is expecting his work permit and social security number to come by mail two weeks after he’s required to leave — during the first week of February — and he fears it will get lost. He asked for an extension to their shelter stay, he said, but their request was denied.

Hernandez’s six-year-old daughter doesn’t want to leave her school, and his infant daughter has been getting sick. “Her medical condition is poor,” he said in Spanish. “Nine months [old] — and to be on the street.”

The Row, a 28-floor former hotel that was been turned into a temporary shelter for asylum seekers, has been one small source of stability for the migrant families as they’ve arrived in New York City and try to build better lives for themselves. Many have traveled great distances on foot, waded through rivers and navigated dangerous stretches of jungle in the hopes of starting a better life for themselves.

“It is stressful, stressful, stressful,” Marco Loja said. “Because if we had full-time work, I would say, ‘Oh, yeah, great, I’m leaving now.’ And then I’d be quieter, more relaxed. Because here it’s chaos, being sent from one place to the other.”

Loja, who immigrated from Ecuador, worries that once his eviction date comes on Jan. 22, he and his family will be uprooted from their home for the last half-year and sent to Floyd Bennett Field, a tent site for migrant families located in a remote part of Brooklyn. He’s concerned the distance will only make it harder to get temporary work and his son to elementary school.

It’s been hard to coordinate with case workers at The Row, as he makes plans for his family’s next step — all while trying to work and get out of the shelter system.

“I leave here at 9:00, and I arrive at 3:30, and I can’t do anything more,” he said. “[The case workers] only work five hours a day. It’s not convenient.”

The mayor has defended current shelter limits for migrant adults, including 80% who did not come back into the city’s care once their time lapsed.

Since asylum seekers began arriving from the southern border i n large numbers just months after Adams took office, more than 164,000 have come through the city. He’s estimated that the price tag to offer them shelter and other services could reach up to $12 billion and push city agencies to their breaking point without federal help.

“While we are grateful for the assistance from our state and federal partners, for months, we have warned that, without more, this crisis could play out on city streets,” said Kayla Mamelak, a spokeswoman for the mayor.

“It is crucial — now, more than ever — that the federal government finish the job they started by allowing migrants to immediately work, and to come up with a strategy that ensures migrants are not convening on one, or even just a handful of cities across the country.”

Schwartzwald suspected Adams’ policy is part of a broader message to discourage migrants from coming to New York City:

“It’s just to say, ‘You’re not welcome here. We’re going to make it dangerous for you to stay.'”

-------