NYC migrant influx overshadows chronic issues

STORY: New York City is facing a level of homelessness - not seen since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

That’s according to the Coalition for the Homeless, a not-for-profit.

As of mid-August, there were more than 110,000 people sleeping in the city’s shelter system each night.

And that number doesn’t include the thousands of unsheltered people who sleep on the streets.

Compounding the chronic problem is an influx of asylum seekers, who now make up more than half the sheltered population.

Juan de la Cruz at the Coalition for the Homeless sees the impact firsthand.

“For example, here at St Bartholomew's Church, where we start serving, we, we're seeing on average, anywhere from 250 to 275 people, more or less regularly. Once the new arrivals started coming, our numbers got up over 400 people.”

It's not gone unnoticed by the city's unsheltered population.

NEW YORK HOMELESS WOMAN, SHERIE: "I have to wait and go through all these other channels. And they’re picking up busloads of people from other places and giving them space here. Why can't we get first dibs?"

New York state has been bound by a decades-old consent decree from a class-action lawsuit to provide shelter to people without homes.

That mandate has become a point of contention between the city... and the state.

NEW YORK CITY MAYOR ERIC ADAMS: "Now we're getting people from all over the globe..."

Mayor Eric Adams says the city is running out of money, space and personnel to care for asylum seekers.

“I don't see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City. Destroy New York City. We're getting 10,000 migrants a month...”

“...and everyone is saying it’s New York City’s problem.”

Adams has called for more support, including a way to expedite pathways to work authorization for asylum seekers.

A barrier that surprises some new arrivals, says Jeffrey Newman - founder of Backpacks for the Street, a nonprofit.

"I think that we don't have, there’s no infrastructure here to allow people to figure out what, how they move through that process, or what the process is. And the same thing for the people who are, who are homeless already existing here. There is no, sort of, it’s a broken system.”

And where Mayor Adams sees no end in sight to the migrant influx, City University of New York professor Philip Yanos isn’t so sure.

He separates the more recent problem around new arrivals from the chronic issue of homelessness.

“I think that the crisis around asylum seekers will pass. And, of course, there are federal responses that need to be made. And I don't think this is going to stay on like this. But the issue of chronic homelessness among single adults and families will continue in New York City as it continues to become less and less affordable.”