Two UWS Migrant Centers to Close as Part of Adams’ Plan to Shutter 25 Citywide

Six migrant shelters in Manhattan, including two on the Upper West Side, will be closing in the coming months as part of Mayor Eric Adams plan to close 25 shelters citywide, as the number of asylum-seekers arriving in the city continues to ease.

One of the biggest closures in Manhattan is the Randall’s Island shelter, which at its peak housed up to 3,000 migrants in massive white tents that were set up on youth soccer and baseball fields. Randall’s Island was already slated to close for good by Feb. 25 even before the announcement on Dec. 10, which was made as Adams himself was heading to Puerto Rico for a conference.

The two UWS shelters slated to close include the Amsterdam Humanitarian Response and Relief Center at 205-207 West 85th St.; the Stratford Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center, housed in the former Stratford Inn at 117 West 70th Street. City Council member Gale Brewer said it is her understanding that the city will not reopen new migrant centers on the UWS.

The other Manhattan shelters on the shut down list include: the 97th Street Dorms on 3rd Ave. and the The Americana Inn on W. 38th St. A sixth emergency shelter located in Hell’s Kitchen at the Hotel Merit on W. 46th St. between Ninth and Tenth Avenues already saw the last of its migrant check out in early November, but it was also included in the Dec. 10 shutdown announcement.

The most high profile center closure on the list is Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennet Field. The fear by some advocates for asylum seekers was that President-elect Donald Trump was going to target migrants there because it is the only shelter that sits on federal land. Adams however did not mention Trump in the announcement about the closures.

More than 223,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in NYC since the spring of 2022, some of whom were bused to New York by the Republican governor of Texas, Gregg Abbott. At its peak, the city was operating 210 shelters across the city. One of the shelters in the Times Square area was the scene of wild brawl in February in which two police officers were knocked to the ground kicked and beaten by up to a group of eight migrants after police had tried to take one into custody. Eventually seven people were indicted for the attack. That center near the crime scene was not among those slated for closure.

Adams has called the influx of migrants a “crisis,” pointing out the total number of migrants who have entered New York City exceeds the population of Albany. He said it has cost the city over $7 billion and was responsible for a deep round of budget cuts a year ago. Most, but not all, of last year’s cuts were restored in the current budget as the migrant surge eased.

He has repeatedly called on the Biden Administration to pick up some of the costs, but said his pleas fell on deaf ears in Washington, which he said has only chipped in with about $200 million.

Migrants rights activists slammed Adams for the 30-60 day limits on shelter stays, which they argue leads to homelessness and is disruptive to kids who are entitled to a public school education, which becomes tougher if they are forced to move.

NYC has a guaranteed “right to shelter” stemming from a 1979 court case, which Adams has sought to amend since arrivals began picking up in 2022.Adams has insisted that limiting the time migrants are allowed to stay in the shelter system was a necessary move to comply with the right to shelter law while at the same time preventing the city from going broke. A total of 55,000 migrants are still housed in city shelters, he said.

Adams cited a sharp decline in asylum-seekers arriving in NYC over 22 straight weeks, leading to the lowest levels of new arrivals in 17 months, as one reason for the newly-announced shelter closures. He added that he was in alignment with President Joe Biden’s implementation of stricter border policies at the federal level that has seen the number of migrant arrivals plunge over the past several months.

“Our intensive case management, paired with 30- and 60-day policies, have helped more than 170,000 migrants take their next steps on their journeys, because migrants don’t come here to live in our shelter system—they come here to pursue the American Dream,” Adams said in a statement.

He said more shelters will be closing in the months ahead. “We’re going to continue looking for more sites to consolidate and close,” he said, “and more opportunities to save taxpayer money, as we continue to successfully manage this response.”

Adams stirred more controversy over his approach to immigration recently, by announcing that he was considering partnering with the incoming Trump administration to deport asylum-seekers who commit crimes, a task that is complicated because the NYPD is barred by laws passed by the City Council from working with immigration agents. NYC is considered a sanctuary city.

He was asked at a Dec. 9 press conference if would be willing to hand over migrants accused of a crime to federal authorities before a verdict and before a sentence is announced. He did not give a direct answer but said he was going to kick ideas around with Trump’s border czar, Thomas Homan.

He said his main aim is to protect the public. “They should serve their sentence,” he said but added, “I want to hear what the border czar, what his ideas are, because justice is making sure that person served a sentence.” He said he would not object if the sentence was served in a country outside of the United States.

Adams will reportedly meet with Tom Homan on Dec. 12.