‘We are starving because the food is useless’

“The food, we are starving because the food is useless. What they give out at night is a chin of food, one goes to bed passed out from hunger and doesn’t even sleep. The cold killing one there too, there is no comfort, that is not a way to live”.

Asylum seeker Jorge Rodríguez discusses conditions at the temporary shelter the city recently set up at the cruise ship terminal in Brooklyn.

Others like him shared similar experiences with us off camera for fear, they said, of retaliation.

The transfer of hundreds of single men to these Red Hook facilities caused a stir given the refusal of some of them to be transferred from the downtown hotel where they had been staying until then.

Their main complaint was that they are far away here to look for work and have no privacy.

“Things have changed here because in Manhattan things were different, in Manhattan we had our room, where we could store things, the private bathroom then,” said another immigrant.

The shelter is still in the eye of the hurricane.

This week, the New York Post reported that a 26-year-old man tried to kill himself at this shelter.

“There is not one or two who are going to want to kill each other because the situation that is being seen there is not easy,” Rodríguez added.

Police confirmed that a man was found with injuries to his left forearm on Tuesday. The young man was taken to the hospital in stable condition. But authorities say it’s unclear if he was an asylum seeker and if it was a suicide attempt.

“I leave in the morning and came in at night so I didn’t have the opportunity to hear about it,” added the other immigrant.

These immigrants said that the lack of work and their family affects their peace of mind.

“My sadness is for the moment not working because if I were working I would already rent an apartment, a flat, I don’t know but with work,” said the second immigrant.

“But one returns here the next day to leave again and the same. And whoever seeks finds, I know that with God’s favor one day I will find a good job,” said a third immigrant.

This Saturday a group of activists will hold a protest to ask the mayor to close this center and transfer these immigrants to hotels again.

“It is dangerous to be there, it is very desolate and at any moment the migra can come and start deporting people,” said Stephanie Gutiérrez, a community organizer for BAMN.

The mayor’s office did not comment on the incident, but they urge anyone with anxiety, depression or mental health problems to use the support available at their centers.

If you live in the city and are experiencing a mental health crisis or have been suicidal please call the help line at 1-888-NYC-WELL.