Gov. Hochul's office accuses city of mishandling migrant crisis in court mandated letter
NEW YORK - In front of the TV cameras on Wednesday, Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams insisted that their partnership is strong.
But behind the scenes, Governor Hochul’s office is not holding back.
In a court-mandated letter to a judge, Governor Kathy Hochul’s office is accusing the city of failing to properly manage the migrant crisis.
Mayor Adams tried to brush off the letter at an unrelated event earlier in the day.
But playing out in court is a different scene.
A state judge in Manhattan ordered the city to submit a list of needs that the state has yet to meet when it comes to the migrant crisis. And the state was to issue a response which was submitted on Tuesday.
The state’s letter, which was obtained by Fox 5 News, outlines numerous ways it felt like the city "can and should do more" when it comes to the migrant crisis.
Hochul did not make herself available to reporters for questions on Wednesday, but went on NY1 defending the letter.
"That's a statement of fact. I can show you all the sites we offered when they're in need of state owned sites. We offered them months ago. They're still available," Hochul said.
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Mayor Adams refuted this part of the letter arguing that they never turned down any viable sites that could house migrants.
"She said that she had a number of locations that we turned down, we're going to sit down and show her why we could not use those places," Adams said.
But the letter is combative, calling it a "decision" by the city to allow migrants to sleep outside the Roosevelt hotel for days a few weeks ago before being placed in housing.
The city has claimed that they were out of beds set aside for migrants.
Hochul’s lawyers also say that City Hall forced some migrants to relocate upstate against their will.
For example the letter says that earlier this month, the city sent a bus of 77 migrants upstate to Rochester, but 30 of those people refused to get off the bus and instead returned to the City.
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Hochul’s office is also accusing the city of delaying a program that would help migrants apply for asylum.
"It is likely that many more migrants would be able to work today if the City had prioritized this effort sooner," Faith Gay, Hochul’s lawyer in this case said.
City Hall brushed off these accusations that they have not used the resources offered by the state and pointed to the more than 100,000 asylum seekers who have passed through the city since last spring.
"That we would somehow make the decision to leave people on the streets, in the face of seeing what the city has done, I would invite anybody who made that accusation to see what we do on a daily basis," New York City Emergency Management Commissioner said.
Advocates from the Legal Aid Society and the Homeless Coalition have also been calling on the state to do more, including creating a decompression strategy to resettle migrants across the state.