Influx of Migrants Tests New York City Mayor Eric Adams
By Jimmy Vielkind, Feb. 8, 2023, WSJ
The arrival of tens of thousands of migrants has put a strain on New York City’s homeless shelters and presented an unexpected challenge to first-term Mayor Eric Adams, who thus far has relied on a series of ad hoc solutions that have produced mixed
results.
The issues spilled onto a Manhattan sidewalk last week when migrants who had been staying in a hotel-based shelter refused to be transferred to a Brooklyn cruise terminal that city officials turned into an improvised relief center.
The incident illustrated the difficulty of assisting an estimated 44,700 migrants who have come to New York City since last spring after crossing the southern border illegally. The influx has overwhelmed the city’s network of homeless shelters and
created a new fiscal burden as New York still struggles to emerge from the shock caused by Covid-19 shutdowns. The situation has also preoccupied a mayor who had expected to focus on curbing violent crime after his election in November 2021.
The migrants—many of whom came from South America and are seeking asylum—were prohibited from returning to their shelter rooms in the Watson Hotel. After a three-day standoff during which a half-dozen tents sprang up on the sidewalk, police cleared
the area.
A third of the nearly 71,000 people in the city’s homeless shelters are migrants, officials said, an unexpected uptick that has prompted officials to rent 83 hotels and convert them to shelters. Another 7,100 people are now in relief centers—
including additional hotels and the cruise terminal that opened last week.
“There’s no more room at the inn,” Mr. Adams, a Democrat, said during a Jan. 25 radio interview.
City officials said Tuesday they would open another relief center later this week in the world’s tallest Holiday Inn, in lower Manhattan. A judge overseeing the 50-story hotel’s bankruptcy proceeding recently approved a 15-month contract with the
city.
About a million people were released into the U.S. after crossing the border illegally in 2022, federal data show. The number of illegal entries has declined recently.
The federal government doesn’t track where people settle while their immigration cases are pending, but New York City appeared to receive the lion’s share of migrants bused by the state of Texas starting last year, according to data shared by that
state. Additionally, the City of El Paso, Texas, sent 10,713 people on buses to New York City in 2022, compared with 3,259 who went to Chicago. Court decisions have established a legal right to shelter in New York City.
70% of New York City voters surveyed in a recent Quinnipiac University poll said the influx of migrants was a crisis. The poll found Mr. Adams’s overall approval rating was underwater—with 37% approving—and 46% said they disapproved of the mayor’
s handling of immigration issues, compared with 39% who approved. Crime remained the top issue for voters, according to the poll, weighing down the mayor’s overall approval rating.
Mr. Adams and his aides said they have “pivoted and shifted” to meet an unprecedented need. The city has looked at more than 120 sites for sheltering migrants, including armories, parks, parking lots, cruise ships and a former self-storage warehouse,
Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol said Monday on a city podcast. Mr. Adams has said that all options remain on the table.
His critics said the migrants exacerbated pre-existing problems in the shelter system.
Dave Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless advocacy group, said the shelter population fell during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic because of federal rental assistance. The city didn’t adequately plan for a possible rebound
in the shelter population, he said.
“We’re looking at a compounding crisis now that should have everybody very, very worried,” Mr. Giffen said.
The average number of people spending the night in city shelters in February 2022 was 45,243, according to city data. That included, on an average night, 8,413 families with 14,541 children. As of Monday, there were 13,398 families with 22,881 children,
according to the city’s Department of Homeless Services.
On Tuesday, Social Services Commissioner Gary Jenkins—who oversees the shelter system—said during a television interview that he was stepping down to “explore other opportunities.” He acknowledged that caring for migrants had strained the system,
but said his departure was already planned.
Mr. Jenkins’s announcement came as the city’s Department of Investigation finalized a probe into the commissioner’s conduct, according to people familiar with the matter. A former agency spokeswoman alleged Mr. Jenkins hid information about
homeless families who were unlawfully forced to sleep on an office floor in an intake center last summer because of overcrowding, the people said.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Jenkins deferred to his interview on the cable news channel NY1. A spokeswoman for the Department of Investigation declined to comment on a continuing investigation.
At Win, a nonprofit organization that operates family shelters for the city, around 270 of the 1,700 families are asylum seekers, a spokesman said. Christine Quinn, its chief executive, said it was harder to help noncitizens move from the shelter system
to permanent housing because they aren’t eligible for government benefits.
As the normal network of family shelters filled up over the summer, city officials started renting hotels. The initial request was for between 3,000 to 4,000 rooms, according to Hotel Association of New York President Vijay Dandapani. The city now has
contracted for more than 5,000 rooms, he said.
City officials have been paying as much as $190 a night for rooms and thought they had struck a deal to rent a block of 200 at the Paramount Hotel near Times Square, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal fell apart when the hotel asked
for $250 a room, the people said.
The Paramount Hotel’s general manager, Joe Kavanagh, said in a statement that “no agreement has been reached due to many factors involved.”
Mr. Adams also announced plans in the fall to open emergency relief centers, including a tent city complex on Randalls Island—located between Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx—that closed in less than a month after serving 125 single men.
The city opened relief centers in several Midtown hotels, including the Watson, but this year turned back to the model of large congregate shelters with the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in that borough’s Red Hook neighborhood.
Rows of cots were lined up head-to-toe in two large rooms, New York City Councilwoman Shahana Hanif said after touring the facility. The Democrat said she was shaken by the experience and called for Mr. Adams to avoid congregate shelters such as the
cruise terminal. Ms. Hanif said she is introducing legislation that would bring more oversight to the relief centers, which aren’t subject to the same standards as homeless shelters.
Absorbing criticism that he wasn’t showing compassion for the migrants, Mr. Adams slept in the Brooklyn shelter on Friday night. “We had a good conversation, had a warm place to sleep,” he said during a Monday interview on NY1.
Mr. Adams projects the city will spend $4.2 billion through July 2024 to provide care to migrants. The state of New York has pledged $1 billion. Mr. Adams has pressed President Biden, a fellow Democrat, for funds and for changes to immigration policy to
stop the illegal crossings. The mayor also has said he wants the federal government to more quickly authorize migrants to work while their asylum claims are pending.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a Democrat, criticized Mr. Adams for not including a plan to fund care for the migrants in a preliminary budget he presented last month.
Mr. Lander said New York has a “noble responsibility, and one that has benefited our city greatly over the centuries—to welcome people. But it is expensive.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/influx-of-migrants-tests-new-york-city-mayor-eric-adams-11675820415
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