September 22, 2023

"The original premise behind the right to shelter was, for starters, for homeless men on the streets..."

"... people experiencing [AIDS] that was [then] extended to families. But never was it envisioned being an unlimited universal right, or obligation on the city, to house literally the entire world."

Said New York governor Gov. Kathy Hochul, quoted in "Hochul wants to end NYC ‘right to shelter’ law as migrant crisis surges" (NY Post).

"We have to let people know that if you’re thinking of coming to New York, we are truly out of space...."

95 comments:

tim in vermont said...

Wait, wut?

wendybar said...

Tough. As a Sanctuary city who refused to enforce immigration laws, you get what YOUR president wants. He opened the border, and invited them in, and your state virtue signaled how much you would do to take these "poor, little migrants" (illegals) in. YOU own this. Either deport, or shut up and take what your constituents voted for.

The Vault Dweller said...

What the heck is this Originalist intent bullshit interpretation? Everyone knows the only academically sound way to interpret the law is in through the lens of how it affects various groups preferred by the Left today.

Original Mike said...

"We have to let people know that if you’re thinking of coming to New York, we are truly out of space...."

Talk to Joe.

Tarrou said...

Progressives only intend good outcomes!

Any bad outcomes were totally unforseeable!

The right wasn't supposed to be unlimited!

We just didn't limit it in any way, so how could we have known?

rehajm said...

The left is obsessed with implementing bad policy with rules and laws and rights then they want to break the rules and laws and deny people their ‘rights’ in their biggest time of need. Every single time…

tim maguire said...

That’s the problem with positive rights—inevitably, you reach a point where those rights cannot be provided. And once you have a “right” that the state doesn’t have to abide by, it opens the door for other rights to fall. The entire concept of rights is dead.

tim in vermont said...

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - 1984

Mary Beth said...

She's saying this right is just for citizens? It would make sense for a government to offer this privilege, but since they've been calling it a right for decades, it also makes sense that people took them at their word.

Kai Akker said...

"I am a dope, an unmitigated dope." Signed, A New York Democrat

donald said...

Ha ha, tough titty bitch.

Enigma said...

Moralists and critics often say:

"Cast your bread upon the waters and you will find it in many days."
"What goes around comes around."
"The chickens have come home to roost."
"They got hoisted on their own petard."
"You reap what you sow."
"Serves you right."

Many lefty politicians made free shelter an issue to score cheap, demagogic political victories. So...pick the expression that fits.

There's nowhere to go but up for these jurisdictions, I hope.

Hamlet's Fool said...

"A conservative is a Liberal mugged by Reality"

Even if they don't realize it.

Enigma said...

Moralists and critics often say:

"Cast your bread upon the waters and you will find it in many days."
"What goes around comes around."
"The chickens have come home to roost."
"They got hoisted on their own petard."
"You reap what you sow."
"Serves you right."

Many lefty politicians made free shelter an issue to score cheap, demagogic political victories. So...pick the expression that fits.

There's nowhere to go but up for these jurisdictions, I hope.

Breezy said...

The current open borders situation should be at the root of the impeachment charges against Biden and Mayorkas. These charges would even get Dem votes now I would guess.

TreeJoe said...

Obvious questions not posed to Gov Hochul…

Old and slow said...

Didn't really think through the meaning of "right to shelter", did they?

iowan2 said...

The law says 'right' to shelter.
That makes is "shall", not "may"

Democrats redefining words.

It fun when Democrats are forced to live with their virtue signalling.

Jeff Vader said...

Another prime example of the importance of running mates, this clown would have never sniffed the governorship if not for being lieutenant to a scumbag

gilbar said...

i thought they were a sanctuary city? i thought they LOVED resident Biden AND his policies?
How things change, when the bird come home to roost

Duke Dan said...

Welcome to the party pal

Randomizer said...

Alsinky's Rules for Radicals #4: "Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules."

Progressives love an open border until they have to deal with the consequences. This approach should work with all of their stupid ideas.

tommyesq said...

NYC's "Right to Shelter" is not a law, it was deemed by the state's Supreme Court to be a part of the state's Constitution. As such, I am uncertain how the rest of the state has resisted the outsourcing of illegals to the suburbs. I am also uncertain how Hochul/Adams purport to be able to evade this absent pitching a Constitutional amendment, which to my knowledge neither have done.

Jersey Fled said...

So apparently there is a limit to the Left’s compassion.

When it stops being someone’s else’s problem.

Esteban said...

"No, no you idiots. We only said those things to win elections! You thought we actually meant it???"

n.n said...

Immigration reform comes home to roost.

Jamie said...

Progressives only intend good outcomes!

Any bad outcomes were totally unforseeable!


This bore repeating.

I would add,

"And progressives should only ever be judged by their intentions, since those bad outcomes just keep cropping up!"

And,

"Now, conservatives, and anyone else who says we ought to think beyond our intentions to their logical outcomes - those people are just mean!"

Scotty, beam me up... said...

Joltin’ Joe (and through him, whoever is pulling his strings and controlling him) have refused to tell America why these illegal immigrants are being let in, no questions asked. Yet, if these same illegals were to fly in from their home countries into LA, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, etc., they would be turned back IMMEDIATELY by DHS without a passport and visa. Biden, with his dementia, probably doesn’t think about the costs to the American taxpayer, both federal but mostly local, to house, feed, provide medical care, and schooling for their children, and as we are quickly finding out, prison cells for the crimes the illegals are committing as well as translation services for many of the illegals (many who will figure out that they won’t have to bother to learn English since the government will provide translators as well as start printing all government documents in all languages.). These illegals are going to suck up limited resources intended for U.S. citizens. Yes, I am very distressed about what is happening to our country but I am thoroughly enjoying local Democrats pissing and moaning because they have been talking down to us who warned that this would happen and now they are realizing there are very big time consequences for open borders. I want them to feel the anxiety and unease that those that they rule are feeling…

n.n said...

Whatever happened to the girl who was raped by her mother's illegal alien boyfriend, then sequestered the "burden" of evidence in the darkness of a neighboring sanctuary state?

Emigration reform to mitigate progress at both ends of the bridge and throughout.

mikee said...

First I heard of right to shelter laws was in the great white north, where you could hop into someone's house for safety if a polar bear was roaming the street. That seemed OK to me.

Jake said...

L O fucking L. It’s truly fascinating how hypocritically obtuse these people are.

Ampersand said...

Our betters have decided that it was a bad idea to try to air condition the Sahara Desert. Too late. For them and for us.

Ampersand said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
khematite said...

Now she tells us.

Bruce Hayden said...

If you subsidize something, you get more of it. So, Dems subsidize homelessness, and get more of it. Now they are subsidizing illegal immigration, and getting more of that too. Put those two policies together, and the price escalates quickly. These are stupid, venal, people.

WTF would you consider housing or shelter a right? Everyone else spends a substantial portion of their income for a roof over their head. Why give those who won’t work, a similar benefit? (And, yes, a lot of them won’t work - try giving them food or a job - the illegals jump at it, while the rest scream at you).red America has much less of these problems, because they enforce the law, when they are allowed to by the Feds, and ship as many as they can to Blue Sanctuary cities and states that ostensibly want them.

Ann Althouse said...

I quoted that but I didn't understand "people experiencing aids that was [then] extended to families."

Is that a reference to the disease AIDS? That goes awkwardly with "extended."

retail lawyer said...

Hochul said Republicans should move from NY state. Cuomo said conservatives were not welcome in NY state. NY is a sanctuary for illegal immigrants. Its all working out as expected.

Gahrie said...

"We have to let people know that if you’re thinking of coming to New York, we are truly out of space...."

So apparently sending bus loads and plane loads of illegal immigrants to blue "sanctuary" cities was a stroke of brilliance.

Ann Althouse said...

Looking at some other sources, I now understand Hochul to mean:

1. The right to shelter began with the idea of helping homeless men on the streets.

2. It then was used to help people with AIDS.

3. Next it was extended to families.

But somehow this right was never supposed to be a right that applied to everyone. It was something limited and then enlarged incrementally. That doesn't sound like the way rights work, which is, implicitly, an implicit assertion, by Hochul, that the so-called right isn't really a right.

Two-eyed Jack said...

I live in a wealthy suburb of a liberal city. I was looking at my windows, thinking what it would look like when I have to put bars over them. Houses in San Juan PR have bars to prevent break-ins, but here the windows are so much larger. No one thought of a day when thieves might just smash them. Until now it has just been addicts looking for quick money, rifling the cars mostly, almost never breaking into the houses themselves. But in the future? As the uneducated and unemployable are brought in?
It will feel like living in a prison to some extent, but you can't rely too heavily on the disorganization of the people brought into the country by international cartels.

Paul said...

SEND THEM MORE GOV. ABBOTT!!! More and more and more... jam NY full of illegals... NY, California, Illinois, Delaware, etc...

GIVE THEM HELL ABBOTT! YA HEAR, GIVE THEM HELL

Iman said...

“All of these immigrants are ruining our Sanctuary State!”

—- Kathy Hokum

mikeski said...

"State's closed, folks; statue out front shoulda told ya."

Kate said...

The "right to shelter", in my understanding, began when mental health facilities were closed. It was supposedly a humanitarian effort to give the mentally ill a compassionate alternative to living on the street.

All bad policies begin with the way we ignore mental illness, basically.

Bob Boyd said...

never was it envisioned being an unlimited universal right, or obligation...to house literally the entire world.

Neither was the inscription on the Statue of Liberty.

Yancey Ward said...

The Biden Administration is going to start fitting the illegals they catch with ankle monitors with orders to stay in Texas. It is hypocrites all the way down with the Democrats.

Leland said...

If it was never meant to be a "right" that extended to everyone, then they should have never used the term "right". It was a political expedient thing to do to call it a "right" to get the grift, err I mean law, passed. Now they have to live with their progressive doublespeak. Same with "Sanctuary". Of course, all of this is because they were fine with the border invasion when it was only Texas being invaded.

Yancey Ward said...

If I were Abbott, DeSantis, and any other red state governor, I would be doubling and tripling the numbers of buses. I would even pay the illegals to take the ticket to NYC, D.C., Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, etc. There is no better way to spend money on politics.

Big Mike said...

According to this article in the New York Post [o]ver 468,200 people fled the city between April 2020 and July 2022. So there's still plenty of room.

rehajm said...

That doesn't sound like the way rights work, which is, implicitly, an implicit assertion, by Hochul, that the so-called right isn't really a right.

Silly lawyer like person. With Democrats..

Up means Down
Left means Right
In is Out
Black means White


...only every single time- EXCEPT when Democrats want them to mean the opposite. So a right is anything they want it mean when they want it to mean that mean...

rcocean said...

Notice she doesn't call for Joe Biden to secure the border, or enforce the immigration laws. She just wants the rest of the USA to suffer, NOT New York.

Scatch a nothereastern Libtard and they all have this attitude. the "bleeding heart" is a pose. They dont "love immigrants" - they hate the rest of the USA and want to destroy it with massive 3rd world immigration. Or they simply don't care. Or they just want enough immigration to have their cheap labor.

I don't see any hope for the USA. You have a lot of dumbshits who think we can let in 30 milion poor people from all over the world in the next 5 years and it wont affect anything. It will. You think you're "insulatd" but that's just temporary. but getting your average liberal Bourgoise to think ahead is like expecting a pig not to eat slop.

chickelit said...

The current situation in NYC seems deliberate: Cloward-Piven strategy to fundamentally transform America. Is Obama behind this?

Aggie said...

Ha ha ha ha. "Attention Comrades, we have glorious new definition for you, please to use new interpretation when having thoughts about these matters." Yes, that's right, 'Sanctuary City', when 'Sanctuary' isn't used as a special category for harboring illegal aliens anymore, the way they used to do, by keeping them on the grounds of the churches, calling it 'sanctuary' to evoke special religious protections. Sure. It always just meant for temporary guys on the street, at the YMCA. Now do Medical Care.

Rocco said...

"The original premise behind the right to shelter was, for starters, for homeless men on the streets... people experiencing [AIDS] that was [then] extended to families. But never was it envisioned being an unlimited universal right, or obligation on the city, to house literally the entire world."
- Said New York governor Gov. Kathy Hochul

That may not have been what was intended, but that is what was actually implemented.

Be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it.

Mason G said...

The Althouse Leftists haven't shown up on this thread yet to explain how New York's dilemma is really all just the fault of racist conservatives who don't care about helping people like they do. Perhaps they're busy finding homes for immigrants right now?

Rocco said...

Kathy Hochul said...
"...never was it envisioned being an unlimited universal right, or obligation...to house literally the entire world."

Bob Boyd replied...
"Neither was the inscription on the Statue of Liberty."

True, but it does also say "Fabriqué en France".

JAORE said...

"...But never was it envisioned ...".

Then learn to think and write clearly.

Unintended consequences by any other name would still stink.

Mason G said...

"It was something limited and then enlarged incrementally. That doesn't sound like the way rights work..."

The General Welfare Clause says "What am I, chopped liver?"

technochitlin said...

This whole situation would be hilarious if it wasn't so damn tragic. Don't make promises you don't intend to keep.

Kevin said...

So the SSF is not as fallacious as has been asserted?

"A slippery slope fallacy (SSF), in logic, critical thinking, political rhetoric, and caselaw, is a fallacious argument in which a party asserts that a relatively small first step leads to a chain of related events culminating in some significant (usually negative) effect. ... This type of argument is sometimes used as a form of fearmongering in which the probable consequences of a given action are exaggerated in an attempt to scare the audience."

iowan2 said...

But somehow this right was never supposed to be a right that applied to everyone. It was something limited and then enlarged incrementally.

You just described the Expansion of Federal power. Far overstepping the limited, Enumerated powers granted in the Constitution. (Also the Patriot Act)

Kevin said...

But somehow this right was never supposed to be a right that applied to everyone.

Then it was never a right, but a privilege for a few.

And it should have been sold to the public as such when asking them to pay for it.

Humperdink said...

Attn Governor Hokey: Send them to Martha's Vineyard. I have heard they have good hearts, willing to give the shirt off someone else's back and are a sanctuary city. They did have an earlier hiccup, but all is forgiven. Spread the wealth!

Bob B said...

"But never was it envisioned being an unlimited universal right, or obligation on the city, to house literally the entire world."
Said New York governor Gov. Kathy Hochul,...

I think she then said, "That's the obligation of Texas and Florida."

Sebastian said...

"never was it envisioned being an unlimited universal right, or obligation on the city, to house literally the entire world"

But why not? Don't progs love the entire world? What reason do they have for privileging American citizens over poor foreigners? Aren't human rights universal, everywhere, all the time?

Xmas said...

As is pointed out regularly, like many "Blue" regions, New York State is one of the richest states in the country and New York City, one of the richest regions. The people there can afford more taxes in order to support these immigrants.

Oligonicella said...

People keep referring to the Statue of Liberty's text.

It's a fucking poem, not something enacted into law.

Joe Smith said...

She obviously hates brown people.

She's a fucking fascist, racist, conservative republican...oh, wait...

Jupiter said...

Hochul feels that immigration should be like abortion. Safe, legal and rare.

MikeR said...

Is she opposed to the huge surge of illegal immigration, or only when they come into her city? Are all Democrats like that?

PM said...

"Hey, don't worry about it."
- San Francisco

Tina Trent said...

Who cares what Kathy Hochul says? She can't open her weirdly lipsticked piehole without lying.

And there is no such thing as a legally enforceable "policy" based on AIDS status because it is illegal to determine AIDS status.

If the subways could run on politician bullshit, New York City would have one less problem. As it piles up like illegals on the streets, it's going to take a Jonathan Swift to identify a pathway out.

Mea Sententia said...

Shelter falls under Article 25 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Everyone has a right to "food, clothing, housing..." It is part of a liberal vision.

Shelter is also on Thoreau's short list of basic human needs, "food, clothing, shelter, fuel."

effinayright said...

Mason G said...
"It was something limited and then enlarged incrementally. That doesn't sound like the way rights work..."

The General Welfare Clause says "What am I, chopped liver?"
**********

How about explaining what you mean here.

Do you think the Clause applies to citizens AND any illegal immigrant who manages to barge into the United States?

If so, think again.

JaimeRoberto said...

"The original premise behind the right to shelter was to signal our goodness. It was never meant to be taken literally." Fixed it.

mikee said...

From news report in recent days, Texas has an abundtant supply of new migrants to send to NY City, over 30,000 in the last week alone. Get those buses rolling!

Rabel said...

In another lifetime these people, hopeless and forlorn, burned out and exhausted, came in from the wilderness to live in a foreign country, offered up their innocence, and sought shelter offered willingly, but they took too much for granted and now that innocence is being repaid with scorn because they have crossed a line, as they were bound to.

It's clouding up outside again, but it's too late to turn back the clock. The offer of shelter from the storm is null and void.

Suckers.

gspencer said...

"But never was it envisioned being an unlimited universal right, or obligation on the city, to house literally the entire world," said Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul, in offering further proof of how Democrats never think through their many hare-brained, freedom-reducing policies.

"We are truly out of space!"

Well, there's always your personal house, Kathy.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"The current open borders situation should be at the root of the impeachment charges against Biden and Mayorkas"

More than 72,000 Americans died of synthetic opiate overdoses in 2022. That's thousands more then there are names on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC. China sells the raw ingredients to the Mexican Drug cartels who then make the drugs and smuggle it across the border.

A cynic might say that it's good we have migrants crossing our border because those dead Americans aren't gonna replace themselves.

I see what's happening here and especially in Italy, as being no different the Trojan Horse. Without the horse.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"State's closed, folks; statue out front shoulda told ya."

Don't give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Don't send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I douse my lamp inside the golden door!

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"Oligonicella said...
People keep referring to the Statue of Liberty's text.

It's a fucking poem, not something enacted into law."

Because for years Progressives have asserted that we are bound to that poem's dictates and if you disagreed, you were a motherfucking, xenophobic, racist MAGA.

But then, you already knew that, Oligonicella.

JeanE said...

Tim Maguire is correct- "positive" rights require someone else to do the work required to provide the right. A right to food is a right to gather it in the wild, grow it on land I have control over, or trade something I have, like money, in exchange for food. There cannot be an absolute right to food because gathering, growing, harvesting and preparing food requires labor.
"Negative" rights require nothing of anyone else. You don't have to do a thing in order for me to exercise my right to worship, speak, assemble, etc.
Gov Hochul didn't have a problem with requiring Texans to do the work required to care for thousands of illegal immigrants. She's just upset that now New Yorkers are expected to do the work to provide the "rights" she used to advocate.


Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Bummer.

I’d love to see Madison put on the destination list. I can’t think of a place that’s more deserving.

n.n said...

Share responsibility with the occupants of Martha's Vineyard.

That said, sanctuary cities and states operate under their established Pro-Choice ethical religion. This is one reason for the large loss of life during the AIDS transgendermic.

Creola Soul said...

Tough shit. You asked to be a sanctuary city and state. Stop whining and suck it up.

Mason G said...

"Do you think the Clause applies to citizens AND any illegal immigrant who manages to barge into the United States?"

Democrats do. Or, at least they say they do when it doesn't affect them personally.

Kevin said...

Shelter is also on Thoreau's short list of basic human needs, "food, clothing, shelter, fuel."

Fuel? They'll be canceling him soon enough.

JIM said...

Every person who voted for Biden should be taking in at least one "migrant", in addition to housing, put food in their mouth, clothes on their back, and pay their education through post graduate level.

Mason G said...

"The original premise behind the right to shelter was, for starters, for homeless men on the streets, people experiencing [AIDS] that was [then] extended to families. But never was it envisioned being an unlimited universal right, or obligation on the city, to house literally the entire world." - Kathy Hochul

"For starters"? There's your problem, right there.

Josephbleau said...

This Hochul statement is very interesting because it tells you how careful the Democrats are with their political promises. When you are on the Democrat plantation, and are promised Social Security, Obama Care, Reparations, Residency in the US, and now Free Food, Medical Care, and Shelter, you need to ask yourself what is the likelihood of seeing the payoff, where is the cash in hand.

When it is your turn, will the Democrats say, as they are now, that what we promised you explicitly was not really what we are going to do now. We are full now, go away and don't expect us to pay up. Hochul is openly saying that the promises of New York will no longer be honoured

Of course they will. Democrats exist for the enrichment of the DC associated elites, and the Billionaires who are at the top. The money is all spent by the hiring of these near rich consultants and nothing is left to dribble down to the needy that were promised a cash payout. Consultants eat all the money.

The thing they can do is reap the profits of justice. If criminals can prey on the people and Democrats can prevent punishment, that is very marketable. Every criminal since Al Capone would pay politicians well for that.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"The original premise behind the right to shelter was, for starters, for homeless men on the streets..."

So not for the homeless women on the streets?

Mason G said...

"Hochul is openly saying that the promises of New York will no longer be honoured"

Unless she can get the federal government (read: people who don't live in New York) to pay for it. Democrats are incredibly generous with OPM. Their own? Not so much.

Martin said...

Tarrou said...

Progressives only intend good outcomes!

I am not sure I believe this.

Any bad outcomes were totally unforseeable!

Except by everyone who told you exactly what the bad outcomes would be.

Gahrie said...

The General Welfare Clause says "What am I, chopped liver?"

When that was written, "general welfare" meant a healthy society to live in, not cash transfer payments from the government.

Mason G said...

"When that was written, "general welfare" meant a healthy society to live in, not cash transfer payments from the government."

Yes, I know. It was a reply to the idea that "it was something limited and then enlarged incrementally. That doesn't sound like the way rights work..." to suggest that that is, indeed, the way rights appear to work today.