[ad_1]
New York Mayor Eric Adams’ administration now estimates that 6,300 asylum seekers have entered the shelter system this summer — more than double the number from just a month ago, City & State officials reported Thursday.
The city is already struggling to meet its requirement to house everyone seeking shelter, given the sharp increase in migrants who have traveled to or been sent to New York in recent months. What’s more, the lack of coordination between federal officials at the southern border and the governments of Texas and Arizona is preventing the city from estimating how many asylum seekers it can expect, according to New York City Councilwoman Diana Ayala, who chairs the Common Welfare Committee.
“It’s quite worrying for me – how can we fulfill our mandate when the number of people is so unpredictable?” It’s not like there’s any collaboration with Texas or Arizona that allows us to estimate exactly where that number is going to go,” she said.
Ayala said she learned of the new estimate of asylum seekers entering the shelter system Thursday at a briefing with Adams administration officials who confirmed the figure. The town hall recently began holding weekly meetings as the asylum seeker crisis worsened.
The situation has left the city scrambling to find space to shelter migrants. In the past few weeks, it has opened 11 temporary shelters in hotels, many contracted by the city in advance to provide space when the assembled homeless shelters were closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In both cases, the local representatives were not notified in advance by employees of the Social Department and the City Hall about the newly opened hotel shelters, which is atypical, but is permissible in an emergency declaration.
Council members interviewed for this article said it was difficult to pin the blame on any one agency or individual for the chaotic rush to house such a large number of families and children who migrated here from Latin America, but noted, that the Department of Social Services was aware of the problem months before it became public. Ayala said she learned of the crisis when she received a call from a reporter in late June.
“At that point the DSS admitted it was true and they thought they had about 100 people. That number was actually much higher, so why there was such a huge discrepancy in what the number was, they failed to clearly explain, and I believe they had some time to come up with some sort of plan, but I don’t “I don’t think even they expected the numbers to go as high as they did,” she said.
The Division of Investigation has launched an investigation into the Department of Human Services into whether it was involved in a cover-up of the crisis, along with violations of the city’s right-to-shelter laws. The investigative agency conducted interviews this week and collected records as part of the investigation, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely.
Advocates have questioned Adams’ numbers since he first said in July that 2,800 asylum seekers had entered the shelter system. His administration has repeatedly said the figure is an estimate and does not include migrants who are staying with family or friends.
Non-profit organizations that provide aid to migrants have also expressed concern that hotels cannot adequately meet the needs of families with children because they lack kitchens or other social services, such as enrollment in education and health care, that are available in traditional shelters. At least one hotel shelter is located in each district represented by Councilman Eric Boettcher on the West Side of Manhattan and Ayala, whose district covers East Harlem and the South Bronx. Last week, the city sent out a request for proposals to house 600 asylum seekers at a Midtown hotel, possibly the Row NYC on Eighth Avenue, and on Wednesday issued another request for space for an additional 5,000 people, according to the New York Post.
Council members said they received calls about opening hotel shelters for asylum seekers from concerned constituents who recalled the increased presence of homeless people, drug use and crime in the neighborhoods where they were located during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. . However, many asylum seekers are families with children and do not have the same high concentration of substance use and mental health problems as the homeless population.
Other council members, who already have a large number of shelters in their wards, also expressed concern about opening other facilities in the city to asylum seekers.
“I’ve been pushing back a lot in the sense, not necessarily that I don’t want shelters, I don’t need them anymore because there are a number of areas that don’t have them, and I really believe that they should start in those areas,” said Council Member Althea Stevens, which already has approximately 20 homeless shelters in its Bronx area.
[ad_2]
Source link