Rockland Granted Restraining Order Against NYC

On Thursday the County of Rockland was granted a Temporary Restraining Order in New York Supreme Court against the City of New York and Mayor Eric Adams, prohibiting the City from proceeding with their plan to turn the Armoni Inn and Suites in Orangeburg into a shelter for 340 migrants.

Due to the City of New York’s lack of honest and clear disregard for local and state laws and the State of Emergency in Orange County, the Rockland County Sheriff’s Office will remain posted outside of the hotel as a precaution.

“The City of New York lacks authority to establish a shelter outside of its boundaries in addition to failing to follow New York State rules and regulations required to do so,” explained Rockland County Attorney Thomas Humbach. “At this point, the Temporary Restraining Order prohibits the City from bringing people to Rockland County for the purpose of sheltering them.”

“This County has a severe housing crisis subjecting many low-income families in Rockland to overcrowded and unsafe living conditions,” said County Executive Ed Day. “Quadrupling the number of homeless in this County overnight, as the City is intending to do, will only compound our housing crisis and lead to more people living in these dangerously inhumane conditions that we are fighting to fix.”

“The current reality of our depleted, fully subscribed, and outstretched resources leaves us with no safety net to meet the humane needs of the population in question,” said Human Rights Commissioner Spencer Chiimbwe. “While the County remains committed to exploring solutions to immigration, and integrating everyone into our diverse community fabric, it has no resources to commit to embracing the new numbers imposed by the City of New York on us. Instructing a place with no resources to house hundreds of human beings is not only unsustainable but a prescription for immediate and future homelessness in Rockland County.”