With NYC Shelters Overflowing, City Putting Up Tents for Migrants
The centers are a response to the influx of thousands of asylum seekers many of whom were bussed to the East Coast in recent weeks by the Republican governors.
New York City is establishing new triage centers in tents to handle the recent influx of migrants who are adding to already crowded shelters that have been strained for months.
Mayor Eric Adams said the city would open two new “Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers,” to house asylum seekers who can’t find other places to stay “for approximately 24 to 96 hours,” according to a Thursday announcement. People might stay longer “depending on the situation,” the release said.
To deal with overcrowding in the city’s shelters, New York had set up temporary shelters in hotels and other buildings to house thousands of migrants, many of whom were bussed to the East Coast in recent weeks by the Republican Governors of Texas and Arizona. But the mayor says he expects many more thousands of migrants to arrive each week to a city that he said last week had hit a “breaking point.”
Anticipating the surge, the city distributed photos of what some of the tents could look like — massive white tents with dozens of orange cots that represented past humanitarian aid centers. A city spokesperson confirmed single adults would be housed in the tents, while families would be placed in a different setup, though she didn’t elaborate on what the structures for families would look like. Most of the recently arrived migrants are families.