NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- The Biden administration approved the use of the federally owned Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn as a 2,500-person migrant shelter, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday.
Hochul received word of the approval via a note she was handed in the middle of a press conference. She said the feds would allow the field to be used by the state following months of negotiations.
"Good news—we are in receipt of the proposed lease for Floyd Bennett Field," the governor told reporters.
The approval followed a late-night talk between Hochul and White House officials.
"This is a big step, because the answer one month ago was, 'No,'" the governor added.
Floyd Bennett Field, a decommissioned airfield off Marine Park, is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area that is run by the National Park Service. The recreation area is remote enough to feature camping sites in some areas.
The new contract approved by the White House would allow the state to run a large migrant shelter on the airfield to help New York City deal with the continual stream of new arrivals.
The migrant crisis has strained the city shelter system, which now has a record population well over 100,000 people, with more than half of them migrants.
The immediate plan is to house 2,000 to 2,500 migrants at Floyd Bennett Field, but Hochul wants to increase that number in the future.
"I'm hoping for an expansion beyond the 2,000 or 2,500, but this is something that we literally just received the lease," the governor said.
The first step will be for the state to start installing large shelters at the site that are equipped with heating and air conditioning.
The state will then move single adults into the facility, while migrant families will continue to be housed in hotels that have been vacated for them.
Hochul's press conference was initially to announce the state will spend $20 million on additional case workers to help migrants through the process of getting asylum status so they can work legally to afford housing and move out of the temporary shelters.
In a statement Monday, Hochul's office said once the final agreement with the feds is signed, "we will work with Mayor [Eric] Adams and his team to set up a Humanitarian Emergency Relief and Response Center at Floyd Bennett Field with the capacity to shelter more than 2,000 asylum seekers."
In recent weeks, critics have accused the governor of not doing enough to help an overwhelmed city. She has defended her response, saying she's been active behind the scenes and that the state has already spent $1.5 billion to help cover shelter, health care and National Guard costs.
"This site will be critical in the interim for the City of New York to provide humanitarian aid, as we work collectively to get people on the path to asylum seeker status and legal work," the governor said in her statement.
Meanwhile on Monday, a 3,000-person migrant relief center opened on Randall's Island between Manhattan and Queens. The shelter was originally planned to have a capacity of 2,000 people.
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