NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Floyd Bennett Field, an inactive airfield in Brooklyn, now holds four large tents side-by-side, transforming the area into a temporary housing facility designed to accommodate up to 2,000 migrant families—among the latest efforts by the city to deal with an influx of migrants, who are also being offered one-way tickets out of the city.
In response to an overflow of migrants, the city has converted the unused runway into a temporary shelter where families can stay up to 60 days. The giant shelter is set to open within days, as the city moves to get the all-clear to open it as safety concerns are addressed.
“These are not fire traps and these are not death traps,” Zach Iscol, emergency management commissioner, said during a press tour of the facility on Monday. “Every single space has issues that we need to address and mitigate. And we work very, very closely with all of our agency partners to mitigate those things.”
The migrant shelter has stirred legal challenges. City Councilwoman Joann Ariola took legal action in mid-October to halt the shelter. “Placing a shelter here would be wrong for the migrants, and it would be wrong for the people who enjoy the amenities at Floyd Bennett Field,” Ariola said in a statement.
The decision to make the field a shelter clashes with the city’s right-to-shelter mandate, which prohibits the housing of homeless children in such settings. Legal Aid Society attorney Josh Goldfein described the place as “semicongregate,” to the Daily News, which could potentially violate legal standards.
"They [FDNY] have given us a list of things they are concerned about," Iscol said. "We have met all the requirements to sort of meet all of their concerns with those lists. There are a couple of other things we’re still working through to try and mitigate, but we’re essentially done.”
The facility provides a 24-hour cafeteria, bathroom facilities, a school room for children, and shuttle bus services, as the location is not near any stores, neighborhoods, or transportation.
Hundreds of people had protested the proposed placement of a temporary shelter at Floyd Bennett Field back in August when Gov. Kathy Hochul first made the announcement that the Biden administration gave the state the green light to use the area.
Dr. Ted Long, the senior vice president of NYC Health + Hospitals, outlined the measures to provide support and health services to these families. All migrants will undergo a thorough health screening process, conducted twice to check for various diseases, Long said.
City officials also stated that they are dedicated to helping the migrant families with their goals. “Do you have a brother in Chicago you're trying to get to, or do you need to be re-ticketed somewhere else?" Long said. "If you want to get work authorization but have had trouble with the paperwork, we are here to help. Whatever your goals are here, we're going to set up a 60-day period with multiple touchpoints each month to help you and your family achieve your goals.”
In addition to the shelter at Floyd Bennett Field, the city has set up "re-ticketing centers" located in a building formerly used as a church office in the East Village.
With limited options upon reaching their stay limit at the city-run shelters, migrants reported that they were directed to visit the center, which provides asylum seekers with free one-way plane tickets to a destination of their choice, according to the Daily News.
The shelter comes as a response to the influx of migrants pouring into New York City, with Mayor Eric Adams warning of the strain on the city's resources.
"We are out of room,” Adams said last week, adding, “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."
The initial version of the shelter stay policies was put into place in July which allowed single adult migrants a maximum continuous stay of 60 days in a shelter bed.
After this period, if they hadn’t managed to secure an alternative place, they were required to reapply to secure another shelter placement.
Many changes have been made since as the administration has reduced the maximum duration from 60 days to 30 days.
Additionally, the policy has been extended to include migrant families with children, placing them on a 60-day limit for continuous shelter stay.
“I support the mayor’s efforts to let people know that we are at capacity,” Hochul said on Monday. “There will be more support next year … but I just want to make sure that we’re managing expectations, because I also have to manage an entire budget that funds education, health care, child care and other services that New Yorkers want to make sure are not cut.”
New York City is currently home to nearly 66,000 migrants, with over 140,000 having been transported to the city since the previous spring.
The city is managing more than 213 emergency shelter sites, and the mayor has estimated that the migrant crisis cost the city around $12 billion over the next three years.