City Limits – While the continuation will not be accompanied by the full $20 million that advocates and the four community-based organizations (CBOs) that implemented the program have pushed for, the $16 million allocated in the city’s newly announced $107 billion spending package is close enough for them to celebrate.

“While $16 million won’t be enough to satisfy the demand providers know exists, this investment will ensure that our immigrant families won’t be left high-and-dry,” said Immigration Committee Chair and Council Member Shahana Hanif.

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Gothamist – A City Council oversight hearing on Wednesday on facilities housing asylum seekers grew visibly tense when an official in Mayor Eric Adams’ administration revealed that some sites lack even showers, requiring migrants to travel offsite for their bathing needs.

Councilmember Shahana Hanif, who helped lead the hearing along with Councilmember Diana Ayala and is also pushing legislation that would preserve access to city shelters for asylum-seekers, said she was stunned by the revelation.

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Daily News – In a statement after the hearing, Hanif, who co-chairs the Council’s Progressive Caucus, countered that it’s Iscol’s defense of the administration’s “shadow shelter system” that’s “dangerous.”

She was referring to the so-called “respite centers” Adams’ administration has opened across the city. Adams’ team has said the sites — many of which lack showers in apparent violation of right-to-shelter rules, 

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Daily News – “This program is an economic driver that will make asylum seekers more self-sufficient and less reliant on costly city-funded shelter beds,” said Hanif, who chairs the Council’s immigration committee as well as its progressive caucus.

Many of the families who’ve recently arrived in New York have struggled to access the city services and legal help — such as applying for asylum and work permits — that could help get them out of city care.

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Gothamist – With many immigrants widely ineligible for federally funded childcare, Promise NYC has been heralded as a vital support – especially to migrants who have newly arrived in the city. Families with children account for more than 70% of those living in shelters.

“Given the administration’s admirable advocacy for work authorization for asylum-seekers, it is befuddling that they are threatening to cut the resource that allows our newest New Yorkers, especially those who are women to go to work,” Councilmember Shahana Hanif, who chairs the immigration committee, said at the hearing.

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New York Times – Young Bangladeshi Americans are making inroads into politics, most notably with the election of Shahana Hanif, a daughter of Kensington, to the City Council in 2021. Ms. Hanif’s victory, at age 30, made her the first woman to represent the district, as well as the first Muslim woman and one of the first two South Asians on the council.

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City Limits – The legislation’s passage came as New York City grapples with its latest climate change crisis,  with smoke from hundreds of Canadian wildfires creating hazardous air across the five boroughs this week, prompting the city to cancel outdoor events and urge residents to remain indoors.

“[As this] package passes every New Yorker is experiencing this air quality issue.

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New York Times – The composting mandate encompasses all New York City residents, in buildings big or small, with the exception of the roughly 400,000 New Yorkers who live in public housing, because the public housing authority is “characterized as a federal agency,” and is not subject to such city mandates, said Shahana Hanif, who, with Keith Powers, are the other two lead sponsors of the legislative package [Read More].

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Documented – City Councilmember Shahana Hanif, City Comptroller Brad Lander led a rally in City Hall Park on Thursday morning to demand that the New York City government administration allocate “at least $70 million” for legal services for asylum seekers. Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Immigrant rights advocacy groups — Immigrant Arc, Make The Road NY, Win, New York Immigration Coalition, and others — were there to support their effort.

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News 12 – Officials and lawmakers are calling for $70 million for migrant assistance in the upcoming city budget for the 2024 fiscal year. This push comes after City Comptroller Brad Lander and Council Member Shahana Hanif sent a letter to the Adams administration last month, calling for additional funds to ramp up outreach and legal immigration services.  

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