NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Mayor Eric Adams warned Tuesday that migrants may have to start “sleeping on the streets” as the city struggles to find more shelter space for an influx of asylum seekers.
“We are out of room,” Adams said at a news conference from City Hall. “It’s not if people will be sleeping on the streets, it’s when. We are at full capacity. This is going to hurt and it’s not going to be pretty.”
Adams’ latest warnings came a day after the FDNY closed a migrant shelter near Penn Station in Midtown due to a faulty fire alarm system. More than 100 migrants were displaced by the closure.
Adams emphasized that the city is taking precautions to ensure no one is placed in a potentially dangerous location.
“We have to sort of localize it as much as possible,” Adams said. “We have to make sure that people have some type of restroom facilities, some types of shower. What we are concerned about is that we're going to run out of places and people are, you're going to start to see people sleeping on the streets.”
When asked about the actions the city has taken, Adams mentioned that his chief of staff is actively consulting with leaders from countries that have experience with managing large influxes of migrants.
“We're going to have to find large spaces with as many as 4,000 migrants coming here each week,” Adams said.
Adams did not dismiss the possibility of setting up tents in city parks, stating, “everything is on the table.”
Over 140,000 migrants have been transported to New York City since last spring, with nearly 66,000 currently under city care.
Adams has called the situation a humanitarian crisis, estimating a cost of around $12 billion to the city over the next three years.
The city is currently managing more than 213 emergency shelter sites.
“I want to be clear, the visual signs of this crisis in this city, people are going to start to see it,” Adams said.