Man accused of running illegal shelters now subletting Queens home to migrants
NEW YORK -- A small business owner in Queens who was busted for cramming dozens of migrants into two illegal shelters says he has a new plan to house them legally.
He also has a message for Mayor Eric Adams after the mayor announced plans to visit the southern border this weekend.
Ebou Sarr invited CBS New York's Derick Waller to tour his new four-bedroom rental in Queens. But it isn't for him; instead he's subletting to a group of African migrants. Some of them were unloading their luggage Friday night after a long bus ride from the southern border.
"We have a finished basement, but the basement, we can't use the basement because there's no egress windows," Sarr said.
That's the difference between this shelter and the illegal ones he was running -- one in the Bronx, the other in the basement of his furniture store in Queens.
In February, the city found more than 70 men crammed inside that furniture store.
Now, it's 12, each of them paying $300 a month in rent.
"There's no financial gain ... It broke my heart to see my own people suffering, spending the night on the streets," Sarr said.
Waller spoke to neighbors who had no idea and are now concerned.
"It's not something that I would, like, condone in this neighborhood," one person said.
"I think the neighbors should have been notified," another person said.
The growing migrant crisis is why the mayor says he's traveling to the southern border Saturday. In a statement, the mayor said he was invited by Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande, adding, "Finding solutions to national issues requires national collaboration."
"At least, maybe he will really see what's going on from going there and so they can do something about it, about what's happening. If they cannot help the people right now, I think they should stop them from coming in," Sarr said.
But they are still coming -- 184,000 and counting bused here in the last two years. And after the Adams administration went to court to limit some adult shelter stays to 30 days, many of these migrants are running out of options.
