New York: New York’s shelters running out of room as migrant crisis hits breaking point

NEW YORK: The crowds outside the Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan this week would have been familiar in any number of US cities struggling to contain a crisis of homelessness: dozens of people languishing on sidewalks, camping out on flattened cardboard boxes day and night. But for New York City, the scene – made up of migrants waiting for beds in the city’s overburdened shelter system – was unusual. And it raised a difficult question: Will this become a new normal?

New York has avoided the kinds of widespread encampments that are more common in cities on the West Coast, largely because of a unique legal agreement that requires the city to provide a bed for anyone who requests one. No other major city in the US has a similar mandate, known as a “right to shelter”. But what happens when a city that is obligated to provide shelter for everyone runs out of shelter? This week, Mayor Eric Adams declared, in dire terms, that there was no more room left for migrants. His administration was coming up with a plan, Adams said, so that “we don’t have what’s in other municipalities where you have tent cities all over the city”, evoking images of homeless camps in places such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle on the streets of New York. “We need help,” Adams said. “And it’s not going to get any better.” Already, New York is home to thousands of people who are considered “unsheltered”, meaning they sleep on the streets or in the subways instead of opting for a shelter bed. But the vast majority of New York’s homeless population sleeps in shelters. New York’s harsh winters also make large-scale outdoor encampments less feasible.
The city is struggling under the weight of nearly 1,00,000 migrants who have arrived since last year. More than 56,000 migrants still remain in New York City’s shelters. And the pace has not slowed. Last week alone, 2,300 new migrants arrived. New York City has opened 194 sites to house the newcomers – including hotel ballrooms, parking lots, former jails and an airport warehouse. The city’s homeless shelter population now exceeds 1,00,000 people, a record high. “We are at the desperation stage,” said Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president. On Wednesday, deputy mayor Anne Williams-Isom said the city has been a “guardian of the right to shelter”, but the system was buckling under pressure. In response to questions about potential sites for sheltering migrants, including Central Park, she said all options were on the table. For now, New York is taking steps to try to deter migrants from coming, including by distributing flyers at the southern border telling them that they will not be guaranteed services if they come to the city.