NYC to close Roosevelt Hotel migrant shelter
Mayor Eric Adams at a press conference outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan in May 2024. Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office on Flickr
A historic Manhattan hotel that became a symbol of New York City’s migrant crisis when it opened as a shelter two years ago is closing its doors. Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday the closure of the Roosevelt Hotel, which has served as an intake and support center and temporary housing for more than 173,000 asylum seekers since May 2023. At its peak, the hotel at 45 East 45th Street processed roughly 4,000 migrants weekly; recently, that number has dropped to 350 per week, according to the city. The facility will close by the end of June.
Named after President Theodore Roosevelt, the hotel opened in 1924 and was designed by Beaux-Arts architect George Post. The building has a storied history, housing the campaigns of Fiorello La Guardia when he ran for mayor, and for Thomas E. Dewey and Dwight D. Eisenhower when they ran for president, according to the New York Times.
In 2020, the hotel’s owner, Pakistan International Airlines, closed the building due to “very low demand” because of the pandemic.
By May 2023, with the city’s shelter system overwhelmed by an influx of migrants, Adams announced that the shuttered hotel would become the city’s first arrival center for asylum seekers. The site was a centralized intake hub offering legal, medical, and reconnection services. According to the New York Times, the shelter still houses 2,852 migrants.
The city made a $220 million, three-year deal to convert the hotel into a shelter, agreeing to pay a nightly rate of $202 per room in the hotel, according to the Times.
As Crain’s reported, the hotel could be demolished and replaced with an office tower. Broker JLL has been marketing the building for sale for over a year.
“While we’re not done caring for those who come into our care, today marks another milestone in demonstrating the immense progress we have achieved in turning the corner on an unprecedented international humanitarian effort,” Adams said.
“Our administration has skillfully managed this crisis, which has seen over 232,000 migrants enter our city asking for shelter, and The Roosevelt Hotel has been key in allowing us to effectively manage our operations, processing over 173,000 individuals through these doors.”
The hotel center joins 53 other emergency shelter sites that have closed or are set to close in the coming months with a continued decline of asylum seekers coming to the city. Last month, Adams announced the closure of more than a dozen emergency migrant shelters by June, including a controversial facility in Clinton Hill that housed roughly 3,500 people.
The city has shuttered the 2,000-bed shelter at Marine Park’s Floyd Bennett Field, and a facility on Randall’s Island that once housed 3,000 people.
Along with the closures, the Adams administration announced plans to open a 2,200-person shelter inside a vacant warehouse at 322 Bruckner Boulevard this month.
In response to the Roosevelt Hotel’s closure, the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless issued a joint statement expressing concern over the city not being able to meet its right-to-shelter rule.
“We are very concerned that the City will not be able to meet its moral and legal obligations to provide safe and appropriate shelter for all in need, especially at a time when increasing numbers of New Yorkers are experiencing homelessness. The City must provide enough shelter beds so that people have a safe space to be protected from the elements and receive services,” the joint statement said.
“It has always been the case that the people we serve are safer when not sleeping in large mega-shelters, and instead are placed in small, more appropriate facilities that help them on their way to housing and stability. But the City must ensure that no one is left outside because of a lack of adequate shelter bed capacity.”
More than 84 percent of eligible adults in the city’s care have or have applied for work authorization, and city staff have conducted over 873,000 case management sessions with migrants, helping them on the path towards self-sufficiency.
Last week, Adams announced a lawsuit against the Trump administration for revoking $80 million in federal funding approved to reimburse the city for migrant-related expenses.
The suit argues that the funds—which were already reviewed, approved, and distributed by FEMA—were unlawfully removed from a city bank account without any notice or administrative process.
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