NEW YORK (AP) — New York City is temporarily turning a cruise ship terminal into a hub of havens and services for asylum seekers, Mayor Eric Adams said Saturday in a series of facilities the city has installed. as we are straining to announce the latest in and handle the ongoing influx that has closed at times.
Brooklyn Cruise Terminal will provide rooms, meals, medical care and other services for 1,000 single men until it returns to cruise business in the spring, the mayor’s office said in a release. The first occupants will be moved from the hotel’s separate relief center and switched to housing asylum-seeking families with children.
“Our city is at a breaking point,” said Adams, a Democrat who has repeatedly called for state and federal help to deal with the influx of asylum seekers. Arrested on a bus by an out-of-state governor — to the most populous city in the country.Adams Traveled to El Paso, Texas this week, visit the southern US border and press points.he declared a state of emergency About this fall issue.
In total, 41,000 asylum seekers have come to the city since last spring, according to the mayor. With the terminal, the city will have five “humanitarian emergency response and relief” centers for the approximately 28,000 asylum seekers it currently houses and those who may still arrive. In addition, some 77 hotels are being used as emergency shelters.
An earlier move by the city to create a shelter for newcomers has been controversial. Abandoned amid fears of flooding from stormsThen the city was built A huge tent complex on the island There are parks and sports facilities.tent facility Closed after 3 weeks After using it lightly for a while as the number of arrivals decreased.
Some advocates for those who need shelter criticized the cruise ship terminal plans, saying waterfront buildings could be flooded and not suitable for people to live in. Hotels are better. A short-term option, the long-term plan should be to free up space in the city’s existing homeless shelters by making stronger efforts to provide permanent housing for residents. said the Legal Aid Society and Coalition for the Homeless.
“Continuing to move asylum seekers into the borough like chess pieces is insensitive and shows the city government’s failure to adequately manage this crisis,” the group said in a statement.
Adams said city officials “go above and beyond both our moral and legal obligations to continue to meet the needs of those arriving in New York.”