The Big Apple is opening two more emergency centers to provide arriving migrants with housing and social services as the number of arrivals topped 74,000 — with more than 47,000 remaining in the care of City Hall, Mayor Eric Adams said Monday.
The two new mega-shelters — dubbed Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers by officials — will open on the Upper West Side and include enough rooms to provide housing for more than 800 single women and adult families.
These two shelters will join the fleet of roughly 170 emergency shelters and social service hubs opened by the Department of Homeless Services and the city’s public hospitals corporation since the migrant crisis began last spring.
In a statement, Adams reiterated his calls for additional support and funding from the federal government to speed the process under which migrants — many of whom are fleeing political violence and economic deprivation in Central and South America and the Caribbean — can qualify for work permits and to defray more of the estimated $4 billion cost.
Hundreds of asylum seekers line up outside the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building. Getty Images
A new Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center for asylum seekers will be established at 205 and 207 W. 85th St. Google Maps
Another Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center will be located at 117 W. 70th St. Google Maps
The number of migrant arrivals in NYC has topped 74,000. Getty Images“New York City is facing a humanitarian crisis unlike any other before,” Adams said. “With more than 47,000 asylum seekers still in the city’s care and thousands continuing to arrive each week, we need a national decompression strategy to handle this national issue.”
He added: “[W]ithout federal aid and a strategy to move migrants around the nation, we are unable to continue treating arriving asylum seekers with the dignity and compassion that they deserve.”
