PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Karim Walker, Organizing and Outreach Specialist from Safety Net Project
4:53:57
·
3 min
Karim Walker, an organizing and outreach specialist with the Safety Net Project, testified against the 30/60 day shelter stay limits for asylum seekers. He shared personal experiences and stories from immigrants affected by the policy, emphasizing its negative impact on their stability and well-being.
- Walker called for the immediate abolition of the 30/60 day limits, describing them as "draconian, discriminatory, and mean-spirited"
- He highlighted the need for affordable housing solutions and criticized the city's failure to address root causes of homelessness
- Walker urged the implementation of city FHEPS laws to help people move out of shelters and prevent evictions
Karim Walker
4:53:57
Members of the council, good afternoon.
4:53:59
My name is Curran Walker.
4:54:00
I'm an organizing and outreach specialist with the City Debt Project, and I work with homeless New Yorkers every day.
4:54:06
In the past several years, as part of my work doing outreach with street homeless New Yorkers, I've met I've had the great honor and privilege of meeting several newly arrived immigrants who are staying on the street and in some of the city's immigrant only shelters, such as at The Herc at Rhinos Island, the Creedmoor in Queens, and Ryerson Street in Halls Halls Streets in Brooklyn.
4:54:25
And through my interactions and dialogue, I've come to I've spoken to many people who have been subject to 30 to 60 evictions that the city is imposed on them, And we've come to several conclusions.
4:54:34
1st and foremost, the 30 and 60 day limits are draconian, discriminatory, and mean spirited.
4:54:40
We call for its we call for their immediate abolition.
4:54:43
And contrary to the city's claim, they are a clear they are a clear attempt to wear people down, to give them, to get them to give up, and deter them from accessing shelter at all.
4:54:52
Instead of threatening and evicting immigrants, the city would do well to assist them in finding, in further housing and advocating for work authorization excel or its acceleration, which many have asked for, for us to do.
4:55:05
One of the people I've I've encountered, a woman named Ava, shared her thoughts as follows.
4:55:10
The, the 30 day rule has impact has impacted me in all aspects because I because every few months I have to move, and it impacts everything.
4:55:18
I've been through 6 different shelters since arriving in New York, and it's impacted my health studies and emotional health stability.
4:55:24
I've been through all I've been through Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, Reynolds Island, and back to Brooklyn.
4:55:30
And at one of those shelters, I had found stability, and I and I was feeling stable emotionally and moving forward.
4:55:36
But after but after finding that stability, I was moved to a place where I had no privacy and had to live in really bad conditions in the shelter.
4:55:43
We're immigrants who came here to be able to find a new, a better a better future and to work and to be able to help our families, but the displacements are making it impossible to work toward that better future.
4:55:54
Undoubtedly, there's no demand for housing.
4:55:56
Let me reiterate, housing, not shelter, is a challenge that our city is is facing.
4:56:02
But this is not a new challenge, and it will not be solved by subjecting tens of thousands of people to cruel shelter to cruel shelter evictions.
4:56:09
The shelter population is at record levels because homeless New Yorkers cannot get housing.
4:56:12
People go into shelter and they struggle to get out.
4:56:15
Successes city and state administrations have failed to create affordable housing of solutions that enable homeless people to exit shelter.
4:56:22
Our cities have failed to to address city warehousing and landlord ware warehousing of tens of thousands of vacant apartments, And currently, the mayor is out refusing to implement city FEP's laws that would help thousands of people move out of shelter and prevent its eviction.
4:56:36
And we're actually advocating for the implementation of those city FEP's laws as a as an aside.
4:56:41
Until the city reverses course and engages meaningfully with the root causes of homelessness, most importantly, lack of access to permanent housing, these issues will continue to plague our city.
4:56:52
I have one last question.
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What kind of city do we want to be?
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A city that embodies the original the original model of America, e pluribus unum, out of many, 1?
4:57:04
Or do we wanna reiterate the darker and the more tragic aspects of American history?
4:57:09
I'll be happy to answer any questions.
