Testimony Regarding the Oversight of Emergency Shelters and Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers in New York City

The NYCLU submits this testimony to defend New York City’s longstanding commitment to the right to shelter, object to planned budget cuts to the critical services actually designed to reduce homelessness, and oppose any attempt by the City or its Mayor to scapegoat recently- arrived migrants as a cause for undermining the city’s long tradition of offering shelter to those in need. This Council must ensure that the human rights of unhoused people, whether longstanding New Yorkers or recent migrants seeking shelter here, are respected.