Closed Midtown hotel, abandoned Staten Island school will accommodate asylum seekers, officials say
NEW YORK -- Mayor Eric Adams says hundreds of asylum seekers have been arriving in New York City every day, and we now know of at least two new locations the city will use to house them.
The Roosevelt Hotel has been closed for nearly three years, and now Manhattan's first asylum seeker arrival center will be launched there. Asylum seekers will be provided medical, legal, humanitarian relief and placement services.
The mayor's office says later this week, 175 rooms will open for children and families and eventually increase to 850.
Meanwhile, Staten Island Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo says 300 asylum seekers will be heading to the abandoned Hungerford School on Tompkins Avenue. He shared photos of cots set up inside.
"Cots, they're very close together. It certainly can't be very comfortable. There's a boy's room, a girl's room. One or two toilets at best," he said. "This is a disaster."
He's concerned asylum seekers already sent to Staten Island have been stranded.
"We have migrants in the Travis Hotel who've been there for three or four months now. They can't get a job because the laws aren't changed," Pirozzolo said.
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In Yonkers, Mayor Mike Spano is gearing up for 50-100 asylum seekers expected to arrive on Sunday.
"I can jump around, scream and yell as to why this is happening, but at the end of the day, we have people that are here that require our services," he said.
They'll be heading to the Ramada Hotel on Tuckahoe Road. He says New York City will pay for their resources for four months, but a clearer conversation needs to be had.
"We're going to hold those who did this without a plan accountable because they need to be able to give us a plan and the resources for which to deal with this in order for us to do the right thing," Spano said.
Adams has renewed calls for additional resources from the state and federal government.
So far, New York City has opened over 140 emergency shelters and eight large-scale relief centers for 65,000 asylum seekers. The mayor says opening the Roosevelt Hotel also means hundreds jobs for locals.
