NEW YORK - Mayor Adams’ former chief of staff told the Daily News he would have “welcomed” a legal challenge to the city’s handling of the right-to-shelter law in connection with the migrant crisis — a clear indication the Adams administration contemplated how the courts could potentially narrow the law’s application.
Frank Carone, an attorney who served as Adams’ top aide until last year and the presumptive head of his reelection campaign, said the Callahan consent decree — which was issued by the state Supreme Court in 1981 and requires the city to provide shelter to those in need — has been extended far beyond what it was intended to do, and that the migrant crisis could easily be used to persuade a judge to more narrowly define it given the severity of the situation.
Carone told The News that revisiting the issue in court could establish “clarity” when it comes to the city’s obligation and suggested such clarity would likely limit the scope of the law, which is viewed as sacrosanct by many progressives.
