Overview
- The Department of Social Services, the Department of Homeless Services, and the Law Department must submit a compliance roadmap by Feb. 19.
- Bringing sites into compliance requires a 200-bed cap per location and in-unit kitchens for families, standards previously waived under emergency orders.
- The new order ends the prior suspension of broad health, building, and land-use codes used to expedite emergency shelter openings.
- About 30,000 people were in emergency migrant shelters as of November, down from a peak of more than 68,000 in December 2023.
- Key hurdles include a South Bronx warehouse shelter housing hundreds of single men and roughly 150 hotel sites for families that often lack kitchens, with Legal Aid warning the single-adult system lacks enough beds for immediate transfers.