NYC to close 25 migrant shelters, including Floyd Bennett Field
Photo via Wikimedia
The massive migrant shelter at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field will close in January as the number of migrants entering New York City reaches its lowest point in 17 months. Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday announced that the 2,000-bed Marine Park shelter, along with 24 other facilities, will shutter over the next two months as the number of asylum seekers in city shelters has declined for 22 straight weeks. The city wants to close the shelter, located on federal land, to prevent President-elect Donald Trump from revoking the facility’s lease in January or launching immigration raids once he takes office, the New York Times reported.
Other shelters scheduled to close include the facility on Randall’s Island, several hotels across the city, two college dorms in Manhattan, a shelter located inside a warehouse at JFK Airport, and 10 hotels upstate.
According to The City, 11 of the shelters included on the list have already closed, including one in a warehouse on the JFK airport campus, Essence JFK, and at the Voyage Hotel in Long Island City. The remaining facilities will be closed between now and the end of March.
The Adams administration credits the declining rates of asylum seekers arriving in NYC to their successful management strategies, which include reticketing, case management, and 30- and 60-day notices.
New York State, which was covering the costs of the Floyd Bennett Field shelter, will continue to reimburse NYC for expenses at other migrant shelters still in operation across the city.
City officials say the shelter’s lease is set to end by March, but families will be moved out by January 15, just days before Trump takes office, according to the New York Times.
Over the past budget cycle, the city’s asylum seeker spending has been reduced by nearly $2.3 billion, according to a press release.
“Our intensive case management, paired with 30- and 60-day policies, have helped more than 170,000 migrants take their next steps on their journeys because migrants don’t come here to live in our shelter system — they come here to pursue the American Dream,” Adams said in an official statement.
“We’re going to continue looking for more sites to consolidate and close, and more opportunities to save taxpayer money, as we continue to successfully manage this response.”
Approved by the federal government in August 2023, the Floyd Bennett Field shelter is the city’s third-largest migrant facility and has housed occupants since November 2023, according to the Times. Gov. Kathy Hochul had first requested the use of the field, which was managed by the National Park Service, in May 2023.
While the governor initially requested that the federal government pick up the bill for constructing and staffing the shelter, the state agreed to cover the expenses, according to Gothamist.
The shelter has been a topic of controversy since its opening, with a bipartisan lawsuit claiming that its establishment evaded laws meant to protect national parkland, and immigration activists criticizing the tent setup as inhumane and far from more populous areas of the city where jobs and schools are located, according to the Times.
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