NYC Council passes bill meant to ease homeless shelter intake for children

Families seeking shelter in New York City will no longer be required to bring their children to in-person intake proceedings under City Council legislation passed this week that’s meant to give some reprieve to families.

The bill, sponsored by Council Member Diana Ayala, would codify a pandemic-era practice that gave children the flexibility to appear virtually for their family’s initial application or reentry into the city’s shelter system.

Ayala told reporters before the Council vote this week that she understood the need to enshrine the relatively recent shift into law — based on her own experience with the shelter system.

“I had a one-year-old in a carriage. They don't want to sit there,” she said during a Thursday press conference before the full Council meeting. “They're hungry, they're restless, they don't want to sit in one place for a certain amount of time.”

All 44 Council members present for the vote on Thursday cast their ballots in the affirmative. If it becomes law, it would formally bar the Department of Homeless Services from requiring a child seeking shelter with their family to appear in person for intake proceedings.

This would stand unless the child fails to appear virtually within 24 hours of the agency’s request, or if the child misses checking into their shelter by curfew a day after their placement. The bill still allows for in-person intake as well.

As it currently stands, families seeking shelter have been required to go to a centralized intake center in the Bronx to secure their placement. Though intake proceedings at the city’s Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing center are drastically shorter today compared to the days of multiple city intake centers, families still spend six to seven hours on average at the center, DHS officials told Council members this summer.

In that same hearing, Homeless Services administrator Joslyn Carter reiterated that its current practice is to exempt children from the in-person requirement for the initial meeting.

“We believe the system we have in place maintains the appropriate balance between the necessity of having eyes on children to screen and assess for real potential needs, while also offering the flexibility and recognition of the potential challenge posed to a family,” Carter said in her testimony.

Advocates say Ayala’s bill is a necessary step in upholding a relatively recent shift in how the agency conducts its family intake proceedings.

“This is a monumental step forward in the fight to end family homelessness,” former Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who now serves as president and CEO of family shelter provider Win, said in a statement.

The bill is headed to Mayor Eric Adams’ desk for his signature. Spokesperson Liz Garcia told Gothamist the mayor's office would review the bill.

“We will always prioritize the health and safety of our children, particularly those in our care,” she said in a statement.

Update: This story has been updated to include a statement from a mayoral spokesperson.