It’s a “disaster”.
A furious Mayor Eric Adams demanded the federal government on Monday mount a COVID-level response to help the Big Apple providing housing and social services to the thousands of migrants from the southern border.
Hizzoner escalated his rhetoric as new statistics just hours after City Hall announced new plans to open an emergency shelter facility inside the cruise ship terminal in Brooklyn’s Red Hook and released stats that put the number of arrivals at more than 41,600.
“Where’s our national response?” Adams asked rhetorically.
“I can understand those who are looking at what we’re doing through the prism of a normal situation,” he continued, during a press conference in The Bronx. “What I’m going to ask of them is ‘look at this at the situation of a crisis.”
“The same we looked at COVID, the same way we respond when there’s a major flooding, the same way when we have a natural disaster,” he added.
The remarks were the latest in a weeks-long trend of City Hall attempting to amp up the pressure on leaders Washington and Albany, including his controversial statement that “no room at the inn.”
In addition to funding, Adams has requested that Biden do more to stop border crossings and pushed Gov. Kathy Hochul to relocate migrants from New York City to communities outside of the five boroughs.
During the fall campaign, Hochul said that request would only be considered after migrants have gotten their working papers — a process that can take months.
Adams defended his handling of the wave of arrivals from South America and use of temporary housing, comparing his response to the one mounted by the Big Apple to combat the initial COVID-19 outbreak, which left more than 30,000 New Yorkers dead.
Many of the migrants have made their way up from Venezuela to claim asylum in a bid to escape widespread political violence in the country amid its economic collapse.
“If you have an emergency or you have a hurricane or you have a terrible flood, we utilized this during COVID-19,” said Adams, clearly frustrated with the blow-back.
“People forgot about that. We utilized ships during covid-19, people forgot that,” he continued. “We used ships to house people. We opened tents in Central Park. We had trailers in front of hospitals because the morgues were overwhelmed.”
He added: “When there’s a crisis, you must use all your tools.”
Advocates for the homeless and indigent blasted the temporary housing in buildings on the Red Hook docks as “needlessly” exposing “future residents to the elements during some of the coldest months of the year.”
“Hotels have always been the better short-term option, in contrast to erecting tents in inaccessible parts of NewYork City that are prone to flooding,” added the statement from the Coalition for the Homeless and the Legal Aid Society.
