City to Close Dozens of Sites Housing Migrants, Citing Dip in Shelter Population

Officials attributed the closures to a steady decline in the number of people in the shelter system over the last several months—though nearly 55,000 migrants and asylum seekers remain, the majority of them families with children.

New York City will close more than two dozen emergency shelters for migrants and asylum seekers, officials announced Tuesday, citing a steady decline in the number of people in the system over the last several months—though nearly 55,000 remain, the majority of them families with children.

The 25 locations, of 199 sites currently under operation, include large-scale tent shelters known as Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers, or HERRCs, like one that opened last winter at Floyd Bennett Field. Another on Randall’s Island will close in February.

There are currently 54,900 migrants in city shelters, according to a mayoral spokesperson, down from a high of 68,384 in December 2023. They accounted for less than half of the more than 144,000 people in the city’s shelter system overall in October, the most recent month for which system-wide data is available, according to numbers tracked by City Limits.

"We’ve turned the corner, and this additional slate of shelter closures we’re announcing today is even more proof that we’re managing this crisis better than any other city in the nation,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement Tuesday.

He attributed the change to "smart management strategies" including re-ticketing—in which the city has purchased bus, train, or plane tickets to other locations for more than 47,000 migrants—and the administration's divisive 30- and 60-day shelter deadlines.

When their deadline is up, migrant families with children can reapply for another placement, while adults without kids must demonstrate they meet certain "extenuating circumstances" to earn more time, part of a settlement reached this spring around the city's longstanding Right to Shelter rules. As of Dec. 8, the city has evaluated more than 3,373 cases of those seeking extensions; 2,244 (67 percent) were denied and 1,129 (33 percent) were approved, according to City Hall.

Adams also attributed the declining shelter population to executive orders at the border by President Joe Biden, which has slowed the number of new immigrants entering the United States, and to New York.

"There have been more new arrivals exiting the shelter system than entering the shelter system for several months now, so there's been declining need for beds," said Dave Giffen, executive director at The Coalition for the Homeless.

He also suspects the incoming Trump administration—in which the president-elect has pledged to carry out mass deportations—could be "spurring people to leave the system" out of fear, despite New York's status as a sanctuary city.

"I don't have any information about that, but my guess is, common sense would tell you, that people who are afraid of being targeted are not going to want to be in places where there's thousands of other new arrivals," Giffen said.

Other homeless advocates cheered the news of the planned HERRC closures, saying the sites—where migrants often sleep in large groups on rows of cots—were not appropriate shelter locations to begin with. The tents at Floyd Bennett Field, which opened last December to house families with children, has been a particular target for criticism for its inaccessibility, on a remote stretch of national parkland along Jamaica Bay.

"Housing families in congregate settings, such as tents in remote locations far from public transportation, grocery stores, schools, and job opportunities, has been a flawed and short-sighted approach from the very beginning," Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said in a statement Tuesday.

Awawdeh urged the administration to end its 30- and 60-day deadline policy and pursue initiatives to connect new arrivals with permanent housing instead, "rather than perpetuating a cycle of instability and hardship."

Win, a family shelter and services provider, said in light of the declining numbers, the city should "invest in a holistic resettlement plan," to relocate all migrants in the system to tier II shelter facilities, which include private rooms.

Floyd Bennett Field Neighbors, a mutual aide group, shared a statement on behalf of Gabriel Montilla, a resident at the far-flung Floyd Bennett shelter since November 2023.

"We came to New York to have a better future for our children and to contribute to our new community, but we have felt very vulnerable here in the tents," he said. "We are grateful that we will have a safer home soon, and we are ready for our next step."

Giffen, of Coalition for the Homeless, said the administration plans to relocate all shelter residents when their current sites close. The Coalition, which serves as both a court- and city-appointed monitor of the shelter system, will be watching that process closely, he said, including ensuring families with kids be placed close to their schools.

"When we raise these issues with the city, they tell us that they are confident that they have enough capacity for what's to come," he said, noting that more people tend to enter the shelter system during cold weather. "It seems they have the capacity to manage that, but we're going to, again, watch very closely to ensure that they continue to."

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