New York City's migrant woes

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Mayor Eric Adams is struggling with the burden of providing shelter for tens of thousands of migrants flowing into New York City and getting zero assistance from President Joe Biden with funding or changes in immigration rules to let these people legally work.

Biden, running for re-election against anti-immigration Republicans like Donald Trump, is wary of helping or even opening up federal properties like Floyd Bennett Field, but ultimately the responsibility lies not with the president or the mayor, but with Gov. Hugh Carey and his successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The right to shelter, which Hochul wrongly claims only applies in New York City, stems from the Social Welfare Article XVII that has been part of the state Constitution since voters approved it in 1938: "The aid, care and support of the needy are public concerns and shall be provided by the state and by such of its subdivisions, and in such manner and by such means, as the Legislature may from time to time determine."

The state has the duty here; the city is but one of its subdivisions.

The 1979 lawsuit, and the subsequent consent decree, that controls the right to shelter is called Callahan vs. Carey. The Coalition for the Homeless and the Legal Aid Society are still representing the plaintiffs needing shelter, including the long-dead Robert Callahan, and the state is still the defendant, with Hochul standing in for the long-dead Carey.

In fact, most of the parties and lawyers and judges of the original cases from more than 40 years ago are dead. One who is quite alive is Steve Banks. He was Legal Aid's attorney back then. Now he's representing the Coalition for the Homeless.

We offer this history lesson to show Hochul that she, as governor, has to find the solution with Adams. It's more than just supplying money (which the feds can and should do and have failed), and she correctly got the Legislature to set aside $1 billion, a quarter of which has already been delivered to City Hall.

For starters, Hochul must end the dozens of anti-migrant measures being thrown up by most of the 57 other counties. We stopped counting at 30. Adams, who wanted to use his own limited funds to house a handful of migrants in hotel rooms outside the city, sued the counties in state court. But a Manhattan judge has ruled that each county must be sued individually in the courts in that county, a ridiculously wasteful exercise. Hochul has to stop this nonsense with a single executive order, laying down the law. If the counties resist, then she must sue them, not Adams.

New York City has 43% of the state's population. By right, 43% of the migrants should be housed here, not 99%, and Hochul has the power, authority and obligation to get involved to work with the mayor to distribute people around the state, equitably and voluntarily.

Showing how wrong the governor's claims are, Attorney General Tish James has withdrawn as Hochul's lawyer.