Mayor Zohran Mamdani is rescinding a new rule set in motion by his predecessor that would have made it harder for people to get off the streets and into shelters.
In a statement Tuesday morning, Matt Rauschenbach, a spokesperson for the mayor, said the city had reviewed the rule — which would have required people to prove they’d been homeless or in and out of shelters for at least six months before they could qualify for a low-barrier shelter bed — and decided not to implement it. It was scheduled to take effect this week.
“We will work to establish a new standard that provides the flexibility needed to protect some of the city’s most vulnerable residents and ensure they can be placed into shelter,” Rauschenbach said.
THE CITY first reported on the rule change last week during a deep freeze that left 18 dead and saw outreach workers scrambling to get people off the streets and into shelters, hospitals or warming centers.
Low-barrier shelter beds offer an alternative to large-scale group shelters, with fewer rules and more privacy. People living on New York City streets and subways often say they’re willing to come indoors to a safe haven or stabilization bed, but won’t go to a congregate shelter, where they’ve often had negative experiences.
Mamdani had been under pressure to walk the rule change back. On Monday he received a letter from several nonprofits that work with street homeless New Yorkers urging him to reconsider.
“To require people experiencing unsheltered homelessness to endure months of street homelessness or bounce in and out of congregate shelter for an extended period before offering assistance is cruel and antithetical to the goals of low-barrier shelter,” a letter from 10 local nonprofits reads. “Low-barrier shelter exists precisely because traditional systems fail to meet people where they are.”
Under Mayor Eric Adams, the Department of Social Services first tried to change the rule in 2024 and exclude asylum seekers from those low-barrier beds. After the city was sued by the Safety Net Project at the Urban Justice Center, DSS walked the change back and began a process to change the rule formally with public notice and a hearing last fall.
Mamdani’s revocation of the new rule comes as Molly Wasow Park, the Commissioner of the Department of Social Services and a holdover from the Adams administration, announced her resignation, which was first reported on by Gothamist.
Park is set to testify before the City Council Tuesday morning about the sub-zero temperatures that contributed to the deaths of 18 New Yorkers, many of whom had contact with the city’s shelter system.
