Migrant shelters across the U.S. struggle as government funds run dry

An Arizona shelter located in Pima County that houses thousands of asylum seekers will cease most operations in two weeks as funding from Washington runs out, posing a problem for town officials along the border who fear an increase in homelessness, Reuters reports.

According to Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher, the county is unable to afford the roughly $1 million per week that federal funds previously covered.

As part of the funding agreement, Congress has a Friday deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which pays for migrant services. The current funding could be temporarily extended as a stop-gap measure to keep DHS and other federal agencies operating.

However, further funding for shelters and transportation services has been tangled up in broader political battles over illegal immigration and government spending, and Congress is at a standstill, in large part due to election-year politics, the Reuters report added.

There are funding dilemmas similar to Pima County's along other borders and in far-away cities such as New York City, Chicago and Denver that have received migrants, the report added. 

As part of an effort to ease the pressure on overstretched resources, Chicago officials began evicting some migrants from shelters on Sunday, according to a New York Times (NYT) report.

Officials said that more than 2,000 people would be evicted by the end of April, the NYT report said. Moreover, many families with children may be forced to leave the shelter network altogether by the end of the summer.

Meanwhile, some immigrants in New York City could be formally denied emergency housing after officials and human rights advocates agreed to compromise on the interpretation of a unique legal decision that gives the "right to shelter" to anyone who asks, NYC Mayor Eric Adams announced last Friday.

Eric Adams asked a court in October to suspend the housing requirement in a state of emergency, drawing a challenge from The Legal Aid Society and another humanitarian group. Following the first 30 days of receiving services, the agreement effectively ends the blanket right to shelter for adult immigrants.

(With input from agencies)