City scraps asylum seeker shelter in College Point
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The city has scrapped a plan to place a shelter in College Point for asylum seekers arriving from the Texas border. Photo via Diane Bondareff/Mayoral Photo Office
By Rachel Vick
The city scrapped a plan to temporarily house a little more than 100 of the thousands of asylum seekers sent from Texas to New York City in a College Point hotel this week.
The former plan to house the asylum seekers at Hotel De Point in the neighborhood was heavily criticized by local City Councilmember Vickie Paladino, who claimed she had been left out of the loop. However, the city’s change in course was unrelated to Paladino’s outcry, though she briefly took credit for it in a since deleted message on social media.
Paladino’s condemnation of the planned placement of a Department of Social Service asylee shelter in College Point centered around what she claims is a lack of social services available to residents in the neighborhood, the presence of existing shelters in the neighborhood and her anger over the lack of communication about the plan from the city.
“It's not an issue of not my district, it's an issue of not in this tiny little town that's exploding at this point in time,” Paladino said. “It was all about College Point not being sustainable — it’s a transportation desert, it’s become heated with crime, so I said try to find another place because it's not going to work; it's not fair to College Point.”
“Nobody’s immune to what’s happening,” she added. “[But constituents] needed to know what was going on and how we were going to handle it, who was going to be in charge of these families.”
The representatives from Mayor Eric Adams’ office predicted 115 rooms would be used at the Hotel De Point, and that families would stay for three to eight months, according to the councilmember.
Paladino told the Eagle she had nearly a dozen calls over four days with officials from the mayor’s office, trying to explain why the neighborhood was not the best choice for the hotel shelter. Though she described the conversations as productive and the final result was the one she advocated for, she lamented the lapses in communication.
“I believe that every councilmember should know beforehand, so perhaps, we can work together with the mayor's office and with DHS to see what areas are best in our own districts,” she said. “Nobody knows their districts better than the council people.”
In a since deleted statement, Paladino said that she was “thrilled to see our efforts and concerns in regards to College Point have not fallen on deaf ears and the city is exploring other options for housing migrants,” according to reporting by QNS.
The use of the College Point hotel as a shelter fell through due to contracting issues, according to a DSS Spokesperson.
“As part of our legal and moral obligation to provide shelter to anyone who needs it regardless of background or immigration status, we are working around the clock to ensure that we are welcoming recently-arrived asylum seekers in need of shelter services with open arms,” the spokesperson told the Eagle.
“We did not move forward with this site because of a contracting issue but remain committed to identifying an alternative location in this area to provide shelter services,” the spokesperson added.
DSS declined to comment on the total number of shelters available for asylum seekers in the borough or an estimate of the number of asylum seekers being settled in the area.
DSS and DHS have connected more than 7,000 asylum seekers to shelter services over the past few months as busloads of people arrive from the southern border, many of whom were not coming to New York City by choice but by policies from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott .
On Monday, Adams said the city is working on establishing a welcome center to direct the newly arrived and connect them with the services they need to reach their final destination outside of the city or to settle within the five boroughs.
Currently, asylees are directed to the same intake centers for placement as New Yorkers experiencing homelessness and looking for housing services.
The city has created 16 emergency sites across the five boroughs to serve families with children experiencing homelessness, and is looking to identify additional capacity across the city.
“We want to make sure we get it right, because, as you know, the numbers are coming in at an increasing pace,” Adams said. “We want to make sure when we open the site, that we are able to continue the success of managing a large number of those who are seeking asylum or seeking shelter in this city.”
“We don't want to just do something expeditiously that's not going to be successful,” he added.
