NYC to open humanitarian relief centers to assist asylum seekers, mayor says
NEW YORK (PIX11) --- New York City will soon be opening humanitarian relief centers to assure the asylum seekers arriving from Texas and other border states have access to all the available resources, officials said.
The sites will offer medical care, food, shelter, and job services, and help migrants connect with family and friends. The first relief center will be opening in Orchard Beach in the coming weeks and another at an undetermined location, according to the mayor’s office.
"While other leaders have abdicated their moral duty to support arriving asylum seekers, New York City refuses to do so,” Mayor Eric Adams said. “This is not an everyday homelessness crisis, but a humanitarian crisis that requires a different approach."
Officials will try to have the buses bypass Port Authority and go directly to the relief centers. The migrants who are unable to find immediate housing will be able to stay at the centers for about one to four days, officials said.
The city has seen around 13,000 migrants arriving by bus from the southern border in recent weeks, officials said. About 10,000 of them have been sheltered by the city at a cost that breaks down to around $1.6 million per day.
The commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, Manuel Castro, said Wednesday morning the city has opened around 25 new shelter locations to accommodate the new arrivals. Castro said, on average, about two-thirds of the migrants who have been arriving in the city have chosen to stay.
--PIX11's Kiran Dhillon contributed to this report.