ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York City has redoubled its efforts to transport migrants out of the city as its shelter system is at capacity, and has created an office dedicated to providing asylum seekers with free one-way tickets to anywhere in the world.
The city council confirmed the creation of a new relocation center in Manhattan in the latest attempt to relieve pressure on its shelters and finances after the arrival of more than 130,000 asylum seekers since last year.
Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has described the situation as a crisis and has begun warning that shelters are so full that migrants will soon be forced to stay on the streets as winter approaches.
“I never tire of saying it. We have run out of room,” she told reporters this week. “And it’s not a question of ‘if’ people will sleep on the streets, it’s a question of when. We are already at the limit of our capacity.”
The city’s plan to offer transportation to migrants builds on previous efforts to send asylum seekers elsewhere, although the creation of the relocation center marks a renewed emphasis on the strategy.
The city has stressed that the displacement would be voluntary.
The mayor’s office has recently limited the stay of adult migrants to 30 days in the city’s shelters and to 60 days for migrant families with children. Migrants, who mostly arrive without legal permission to work, can reapply for accommodation if they cannot find a new place to live.
A spokeswoman for Adams said about 20,000 people have received 30- or 60-day notices. Less than 20% of people who have exceeded the limits remain in the city’s shelters, she added. City officials have said those statistics are proof that their policies are encouraging migrants to find alternative housing.
Adams also seeks to suspend a legal agreement that requires New York City to provide emergency housing to homeless people. No other large U.S. city has such a requirement, and the mayor’s office has argued in court that the mandate was never intended to apply to an influx of migrants. A judge this month ordered the city to begin mediation talks with homeless advocacy groups to find a solution.
The mayor’s office said it has set up more than 200 emergency shelters to house migrants, including renting space in hotels and building large-scale facilities. More than 65,000 immigrants are in shelters in the city.
Adams said he expects the arrival of migrants to cost about $12 billion over the next three years.
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2023-10-27 22:24:15
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