Times Square hotel will serve as temporary shelter for migrant families
Image via WikiCommons
A four-star Times Square hotel will become an emergency shelter for hundreds of migrant families, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Wednesday. Located at 700 8th Avenue in Midtown West, the Row NYC Hotel will house at least 200 families, with the ability to host more in the coming weeks. The hotel, the second intake center/shelter to open for asylum seekers in the city, will offer food, medical care, casework services, and a “range of settlement options,” according to a press release.
At least 18,600 asylum seekers have arrived in the city since the spring. The city’s shelter system has also seen an influx in its population, reaching more than 61,000 last week. The shelter population is expected to hit 100,000 people if nothing is done.
Adams last Friday declared a state of emergency due to the surge in migrants, and this week began the construction of a “humanitarian emergency response and relief center” on Randall’s Island. Originally, the center was planned for Orchard Beach in the Bronx but was scrapped after the area flooded.
To further combat the surge, Adams on Wednesday called upon affordable housing developers to accept more homeless families at their buildings in order to free up space in the city’s shelter system for migrants.
“As the number of asylum seekers entering New York City continues to increase without an end in sight, the city’s family-focused Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center will soon open to serve families with children and provide them with the care and compassion they deserve,” Adams said.
“This is not an everyday homelessness crisis, but a humanitarian crisis that requires a different approach, and these humanitarian emergency response centers will take on a multitude of looks with the similarities that they will all help triage and provide immediate support to arriving asylum seekers. We will continue to respond with care and compassion as we deal with this humanitarian crisis made by human hands.”
The city has also opened 46 hotels as emergency shelters, connected asylum seekers with resources, and enrolled children in public schools.
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