NYC agencies ordered to use their properties, staff for migrant housing and services as city hits crisis point
Mayor Adams’ office is ordering all city government agencies to identify properties they own that can be converted into emergency housing for asylum seekers as the local migrant crisis continues to deepen.
Camille Varlack, Adams’ chief of staff, issued the directive in a Sunday letter to all agency heads. The letter, which was obtained by the Daily News, also asks all agency brass to check if they have any employees who’d be willing to help staff new migrant housing facilities.
“With more asylum seekers arriving daily, this influx has pushed our shelter system to a breaking point and we need to create emergency temporary sites,” Varlack wrote.
Sites that could be retrofitted into migrant housing must be at least 10,000 square feet, have running water and feature “open layout spaces” where rows of bunk beds can be set up, according to Varlack’s missive. Sites should have “no known health hazards,” she added.
Varlack asked agency leaders to submit a list of sites that could potentially be repurposed as housing by 5 p.m. Tuesday.
In addition to identifying properties, Varlack urged agency officials to check in with their workers about taking on 12-hour shifts at migrant housing facilities.
“Depending on the staff’s experience, assignments can include site managers, or deputy managers,” she wrote. “In addition, staff can volunteer in other roles such as general support, security, cleaning and other human service-related responsibilities.”
It’s a plus if workers can speak Spanish, and Varlack said they will be eligible for “overtime/flex-time” pay.
The unusual orders from Varlack come on the heels of the administration opening an emergency migrant housing site at the NYPD’s old Police Academy building in Manhattan — where children were admitted over the weekend in a potential violation of local shelter rules, as first reported by the Daily News.
There are currently more than 37,500 migrants living in city shelters, hotels and other sites, costing the city millions of dollars per day, according to Adams’ office. Most of the migrants are fleeing violence and poverty in their Latin American home countries and ended up in New York after crossing into the U.S. from Mexico in hopes of securing asylum.
Adams spokesman Fabien Levy indicated the administration’s search for more spaces to house migrants is in part motivated by this week’s expiration of Title 42, a Trump-era policy that has prevented many asylum seekers from entering the U.S.
“This weekend alone, we received hundreds of asylum seekers every day, and with Title 42 set to be lifted this week, we expect more to arrive in our city daily,” he said. “We are considering a multitude of options, but, as we’ve been saying for a year, we desperately need federal and state support to manage this crisis.”
