Now NYC is considering housing migrants in tents in CENTRAL PARK
- The plan also considers 3,000 locations in New York, including tourist public green spaces, as places to erect emergency housing for the migrants
- Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom said ‘everything is on the table’
New York City has considered housing migrants in tents in Central Park – as 500 asylum seekers flood the city every day during the ongoing crisis.
The proposed migrant plan, reported first by the Gothamist, also considers 3,000 other locations in New York, including tourist public green spaces, as places to erect emergency housing for the crushing influx of migrants.
In response to the Gothamist report, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said: ‘Everything is on the table.’
The consideration comes as New York continues to deal with thousands of migrants arriving each month in the Big Apple. Many have come on buses from southern states, where Governors have sent migrants north to liberal-led locations to highlight the troubles with people crossing the southern border.
In recent days, hundreds of migrants have been living on the sidewalk outside the midtown’s Roosevelt Hotel, which is now a migrant shelter, hoping to get inside to have a place to sleep.
Adding Central Park as a temporary shelter would create a sight not seen since 2020, when tents lined part of the park to help treat those ill during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
New York City has considered housing migrants in tents in Central Park – as 500 asylum seekers flood the city every day during the ongoing crisis
People waiting outside the Roosevelt Hotel on Wednesday. They are waiting to be let into the hotel, which is a place for asylum seekers to sleep
If the plan were to go ahead, it would be an eerie reminder of the tented field hospital that was erected in Central Park during the height of the coronavirus pandemic in April 2020. Pictured: Samaritan’s Purse Emergency Field Hospital in May 2020
Putting temporary structures in Central Park, Randall’s Island or Prospect Park in Brooklyn would bring high visibility to the crisis – which currently sees 2,300 people arrive from the border each week.
Williams-Isom reiterated New York strives to house everyone because the administration has compassion, but she also berated other cities and the federal government for leaving the Big Apple to deal with the brunt of the swelling crisis.
Williams-Isom declined to comment on how imminent the plan to house migrants in Central Park could be, but said the idea has been floated for months.
If the plan moves forward, it would be an eerie reminder of the tented field hospital that was erected in Central Park during the height of the coronavirus pandemic in April 2020.
When it opened, the 68-bed field hospital in Manhattan’s iconic park had 10 ICU beds and ventilators to treat patients.
White tents filled with medical equipment descended on the grass, directly across from one of Mount Sinai’s main hospitals on Fifth Avenue.
In October last year, the city opened up a ‘tent city’ on Randall’s Island, which could hold 1,000 people. It quickly closed that facility, but is now looking at new housing options on the island.
On average, 500 people are arriving in the Big Apple every day. The city’s infrastructure could ‘buckle’ soon, she warned.
White tents filled with medical equipment descended on the grass, directly across from one of Mount Sinai’s main hospitals on Fifth Avenue
Williams-Isom declined to comment on how imminent the plan to house migrants in Central Park could be, but said the idea has been floated for months
Williams-Isom said she believes people are coming from other US cities such as Denver and Chicago when doors close there. New York City, in comparison, has opened a total of 197 sites across the city to help with the issue.
In the last week of July, 2,300 migrants landed in the city to seek asylum. The Roosevelt Hotel has around 1,000 rooms available for migrants.
‘New York City cannot continue to carry the weight of a national problem on our own. It is time for the rest of the nation to step up,’ Williams-Isom warned Wednesday.
She reiterated New York is dealing with the brunt of a country-wide issue. There are currently 15 different languages being spoken outside the Roosevelt Hotel – emblematic of how far-reaching the migrant crisis has become.
This is not the Adams Administration’s migrant crisis plan A or even plan B – it is ‘plan F,’ Williams-Isom said, highlighting how much the city has already done.
Eric Adams, NYC’s Mayor, skipped the Wednesday press conference on the migrant crisis. His deputy said Adams ‘had a change in schedule,’ but that she’s ‘not sure’ what the exact reason was for his absence.
On Tuesday night, the migrants were still seen outside the hotel. They are waiting their turn to be allowed inside
People wait outside the Roosevelt Hotel today
As well as trying to fit all the incoming migrants inside the city, Adams has previously shipped them to neighboring communities within the state to ease the pressure.
Hundreds of migrants lined the block outside the hotel that serves as the ‘arrival center’ for migrants and the homeless. Pictures show the tired and disheveled asylum seekers waking up from their sleep to stand in the line outside the hotel once again – with hopes that they will be allowed in on Wednesday.
The crisis has swelled since April 2022 and left hundreds of NYC shelters at capacity and forced migrants from across the globe to sleep on public sidewalk during the mid-summer heat in Midtown Manhattan.
‘It’s not going to get any better – from this moment on is downhill,’ Mayor Eric Adams warned earlier this week.
New York is bound by a decades-old consent decree in a class-action lawsuit to provide shelter for those without homes.
Pictures from Wednesday morning show the tired asylum seekers waking up from their sleep to stand in the line outside the migrant hotel once again – with hopes that they will be allowed in today
The Big Apple has been hit particularly hard by the migrant crisis as conservative governor Ron DeSantis in Florida and Greg Abbott in Texas have bussed asylum seekers into New York City.
Southern state governors, such as Abbott, DeSantis and Arizona Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, have continued to send migrants north to so-called ‘sanctuary’ cities and states.
Texas, alone, has sent roughly 22,000 migrants on buses to other cities.
The southern governors have sent the buses without warning to ease their burden on the push of migrants entering the country and the White House’s lax immigration policies.
As a result of the busing, Adams — who has called the immigration crisis a ‘disaster’— has opened 174 emergency shelters and intake centers.
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