New York City considering popular soccer fields on Randalls Island as home for asylum seekers
NEW YORK -- In a frantic search for more space to house asylum seekers, city officials are now once again considering building a tent city on Randalls Island.
The possibility comes as officials say 95,600 asylum seekers have arrived here since last spring, including 2,300 in the last week, alone.
The city has already opened 194 sites and 13 relief centers.
Believe it or not, the city has considered 3,000 different locations to house asylum seekers. But with migrants now sleeping on the street around The Roosevelt Hotel, officials are eying four popular soccer fields that could be home to an eye-popping 2,000 people.
"All options are on the table for us right now," Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom said Wednesday.
Williams-Isom admitted the city is once again considering erecting a tent city on Randalls Island, but this time they want to use four popular soccer fields on the southern part of the island.
When Chopper 2 flew over the island, the soccer nets were still up, ready for the the public and private school teams and various adult leagues that spend some 3,000 hours on the fields.
As many as 2,000 asylum seekers could be housed there.
"I think when we originally did our tent in Randalls Island, that was probably 30,000 migrants ago and so we are here now trying to make sure that we look at all the options on the table," Williams-Isom said.
Watch Marcia Kramer's report
With several thousands more asylum seekers from all over the globe arriving here this week, the city is poised to build a shelter for 1,000 in the parking lot of the Creedmore psychiatric center in Queens. The deputy mayor said the hope is to have it ready in two weeks, though construction hasn't yet started.
All of this comes as the city's inundated processing center at The Roosevelt Hotel hit capacity over the weekend, leaving hundreds crowded in pens on the sidewalk waiting for placement.
One migrant told CBS New York he has been waiting for five days.
"The biggest problem is we have to prioritize families with children, which then you can't mix with single adults, which is causing some of the backlog here," Public Advocate Jumanne Williams said. "We have a humanitarian crisis. Our government is not treating it that way."
"You know, we don't have another solution. We can only wait here," said one asylum seeker from Senegal.
The area has taken on a distinctive odor as the migrants crowd together, sleeping on the sidewalk, and not leaving because they are afraid to lose their place in line. Advocates distribute water and snacks.
"How much longer do you think they'll have to be sleeping out on the streets?" CBS New York's Ali Bauman asked New York City Health and Hospitals senior vice president Dr. Ted Long.
"The fastest way that we're going to be able to remove the line over there is we get the space that we need," Long said.
Williams said he has pleaded for the state and federal government to step in. He said in the meantime, the city is working to get portable showers and bathrooms for those camping outside.
- READ MORE: Local community offers many complaints about asylum seeker shelter in College Point, Queens
On Wednesday, one lucky family piled into an Uber SUV after the city found them a shelter space.
"Every week, I come here and I talk about system's at its breaking point. Things are not looking good. We need some support and now New Yorkers are seeing what that means and what that looks like. It's heartbreaking. No one is happy about that. We need support and it doesn't have to be that way," Williams-Isom said. "We need the federal government to come in and say that this is a federal emergency and declaration, so that we would be able to help people settle."
City Hall says without federal help, there is no timeline for when the incoming asylum seekers will be housed.
The Adams administration maintains New York is at capacity and the White House needs to act.
"What you're seeing here in the street, we've done everything possible. The federal government is responsible for what you're seeing here tonight," said Manuel Castro, commissioner of the mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs.
New York legislators met with the Homeland Security secretary last week, asking for federal help. That includes expediting work authorization for asylum seekers so they can legally get jobs.
"We need access to federal sites. We need a federal declaration so that we can unlock more funds and more sites, and we need a national decompression strategy," Williams-Isom said.
Williams suggests the feds open military vessels like the U.S.S. Comfort.
"President Biden, maybe you need to come down and see what's going on for yourself," he said.
Williams said the lack of urgency from Biden hurts asylum seekers and hurts his favor ahead of the upcoming election cycle.
"It's the wrong political calculation. Don't assume that it's in the bag in New York City, in New York state, and not assist us in a time of need," he said.
Mayor Eric Adams visited the line of asylum seekers Wednesday night.
"What are you hearing from the White House about this right now?" Bauman asked.
"That's the problem, we're not hearing enough," Adams said.
Williams also said he's working on trying to get porta potties and portable showers for those waiting outside the Roosevelt Hotel. Most have not bathed since they got off the buses last week.
We reached out to senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand on Monday on this issue and still have not heard back.
Three more buses were expected Wednesday. People are now coming to New York City from all over the world. In The Roosevelt Hotel processing center, people speak 15 different languages.
