Greater than two dozen migrant housing websites will shut within the subsequent two months, together with the mega-shelter at Floyd Bennett Subject because the stream of migrants coming into town slows, Metropolis Corridor introduced Tuesday.
Migrant households residing on the Floyd Bennett Subject shelter, situated in southern Brooklyn, might be moved out by Jan. 15 although the positioning received’t be completely wound down till March, in line with metropolis authorities sources.
The transfer to shut the controversial shelter is the newest signal of town’s migrant disaster cutting down, and it was cheered by advocates who feared President-elect Donald Trump’s administration might use the positioning to accommodate migrants focused for deportation.
In whole, town might be shuttering 25 migrant housing amenities by March, together with a shelter at an unused hangar at JFK Airport, the Stratford Arms website on the Higher West Facet and the Randall’s Island tent camp, in line with Mayor Adams’ workplace.
The closures mark a turning level for town’s migrant disaster. The Huge Apple has seen its migrant inhabitants in shelters lower for 22 weeks straight, now reaching its lowest level since summer season 2023, in line with Metropolis Corridor. Nonetheless, tens of 1000’s of migrants stay within the metropolis’s care.
With the incoming Trump administration’s risk of mass deportations, officers and advocates had fearful Floyd Bennett Subject, which is inside the metropolis’s bounds however on federal land managed by the Nationwide Park Service, might be prey to immigration authorities trying to spherical up migrants.
Migrants who at present stay at Floyd Bennett Subject and nonetheless want housing as soon as the shelter shutters are anticipated to be directed to different metropolis websites with vacancies, the sources mentioned. It wasn’t instantly clear what websites specifically they’ll be despatched to.
The eating space within the migrant shelter at Floyd Bennett Subject in Brooklyn is pictured on Monday, Oct. 30, 2023. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Each day Information)
Hellerman’s mutual help group has labored alongside the roughly 2,000 migrants residing at Floyd Bennett Subject for the previous 12 months, serving to present clothes, suitcases, meals and different requirements to the households residing on the website.
After Trump’s victory, the group lobbied metropolis and state elected officers to close down the positioning earlier than Trump got here into workplace, fearing the positioning’s location on federal land would make these residing on it weak to deportation. The location is now set to be vacated 5 days earlier than Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
“In preparation for the president-elect’s plans to implement mass deportations nationwide, we are closely monitoring these closures and transfers to ensure new arrivals’ access to shelter and protection from any potential federal immigration enforcement dragnets,” Authorized Help and Coalition for the Homeless mentioned in a joint assertion after Metropolis Corridor’s announcement.
Migrants stroll from their non permanent shelter at Floyd Bennett Subject, a former airfield in Brooklyn, on Jan. 4, 2024 in New York Metropolis. (Photograph by Spencer Platt/Getty Photos)
In a press release saying the closures on Tuesday, Mayor Adams credited town’s 30- and 60-day shelter keep limits and case administration efforts and mentioned town will search for extra websites to shut.
“Thanks to our smart management strategies, 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,” Adams mentioned.
The Floyd Bennett website has come below hearth from advocates because it opened due to its location on a distant former airfield removed from faculties and in a flood-prone space.
Authorized Help and Coalition for the Homeless mentioned they welcome the closure however might be watching to make sure youngsters’s training is just not disrupted: “We are mindful of the disruption it causes to the families we serve, who above all else are longing for stability,” the organizations wrote.
College buses line as much as evacuate migrants from a facility at Floyd Bennett Subject in Brooklyn on Tuesday, January 9, 2024, throughout a tough storm. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Each day Information)
Jennifer Pringle, who directs Advocates for Kids’s college students in non permanent housing portfolio, mentioned that shifting shelter placements and frequent strikes makes children’ training “horribly disrupted.”
She fearful that college students residing at Floyd Bennett Subject, who’ve been exempt from 60-day shelter keep limits, might be destabilized by relocating mid-schoolyear.
“So as the city closes Floyd Bennett Field, it’s going to be really important that families know kids can stay in their own schools, that there’s busing available,” Pringle mentioned. “… Kids’ education should not be left on the sidelines as the city moves ahead with these changes.”
Initially Printed: December 10, 2024 at 1:39 PM EST
