Mayor says Creedmoor, Aqueduct migrant shelters ‘still on table’
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Queens electeds rallied outside Community Board 13’s offices in Queens Village on Wednesday, expressing their opposition to a proposed Creedmoor tent shelter for migrants. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
By Ryan Schwach
Despite another day of local pushback from Queens officials over the city's plan to bring migrant shelters to two sites in the borough, the mayor says all options to house asylum seekers arriving to the city are “still on the table.”
At a press conference on Wednesday where he announced that the city would be evicting single men and women asylum seekers from emergency shelters after 60 days, Mayor Eric Adams said that no site for housing migrants has been ruled out, including potential tent shelter structures at Aqueduct Racetrack and Creedmoor Psychiatric Facility.
“Everything is still on the table, nothing is off the table,” the mayor said, disputing what Queens officials had said two days prior at a rally against the proposed shelter at Aqueduct.
Just a few hours before the mayor’s press conference, where he continued to express dire straits regarding New York City’s capacity to take in migrants, Eastern Queens officials rallied in opposition to the city’s potential plan to build a tent shelter at Creedmoor.
Held outside Community Board 13 in Queens Village, the rally was considerably different in tone to the rally against the Aqueduct site held on Monday. Officials at the Creedmoor rally said they were concerned about the quality of life for migrants who could be housed at mostly-abandoned physiatric facility, rather than the potential effects on the surrounding community.
“That site is not a viable location for several reasons,” said City Counilmember Linda Lee, who was joined by other electeds and civic leaders on Wednesday at the rally. “We need to figure out a way to make sure that [migrants] are all getting access to services, and that also they have places to go and have ways to get around in that transit desert.”
She added that housing migrants in tents at the far removed site was “not a humane situation.”
Lee and other local elected officials, including Borough President Donovan Richards, Senator Toby Ann Stavisky, Assemblymember Ed Braunstein and City Councilmember Vickie Paladino, expressed concern over the potential lack of resources for migrants.
“How are they going to be treated?” said Richards. “What is the plan to ensure that they could shower? How are they using the bathroom? How are they traveling? What about work? What about activities for their children?”
“We have significant questions about access to social services, and other community resources,” added Braunstein. “Quite frankly, I'm not sure that the city and state can give us sufficient answers to those questions.”
Lee said that she was worried that even if the city could promise resources, she doesn’t see Creedmoor as a workable option due its isolation.
“I don't know that this location will work regardless, in all honesty,” she told the Eagle. “If you actually look and drive on the campus, they have streets and roads in and of itself that are very difficult to navigate…Even if we had extra resources, there is nothing around.”
“On Jamaica Avenue where we're standing right now, there's at least places to walk, commercial businesses, places where they can maybe walk to work or find other employment and jobs,” she added. “I want to see them plugged into social services, I want them to be self-sustaining.”
At a similar rally on Monday opposing the potential Aqueduct Racetrack site, officials were shouted down at times by community members urging federal officials to “close the border,” and expressed fears that immigrants would take American jobs, sentiments officials on Wednesday chose to distance themselves from.
“Let me start with the premise that in this borough, we are the most diverse county in the country,” said Richards. “So, by no means are we xenophobic.”
Stavisky urged Queens residents not to have a “not-in-my-back-yard mentality” about the migrant crisis.
Both rallies were mostly bipartisan, with officials from both sides of the aisle announcing their displeasure with the city’s plans.
“We stand here in bipartisan unity,” said Republican Councilmember Paladino, who blamed the federal government for the crisis. “I believe that there should be a state of emergency declared upon the State and City of New York – we cannot do this anymore.”
Eastern Queens community board members and civic leaders echoed the feelings of their elected representatives, and added more concern about the impact on the community, similar to what was expressed in South Queens on Monday.
“Creedmoor should be off the table,” said CB13 Chair Bryan Block. “The infrastructure is not there for migrants, and the community is totally not in favor of it.”
Block said that two other shelters were recently opened on Jericho Turnpike, and that the community is already “inundated.”
“The Eastern Queens community has accepted two shelters…they don't need anymore,” he said.
“It's a plan that will surely overburden the community,” added Bob Friedrich, the president of Glen Oaks Village. “The 15 civic associations that make up this community are opposed to this poorly designed plan.”
If there was any common ground between officials and rallygoers in Southern and Eastern Queens, it was their frustration over the lack of transparency from the city and state about the potential plan.
“Transparency includes notifying the elected officials and letting us know what the plans are,” said Stavisky, who added that she had “complained to the city.”
Officials said they were notified via text on Saturday night of the plans to bring tent shelters to Creedmoor and Aqueduct.
“We need to know what's happening, when it's happening, if it's happening,” said Richards.
The mayor, meanwhile, expressed at his press conference that New York City is at “full capacity.”
“Our cup has basically runneth over,” he said. “We have no more room in the city.”
Adams repeated his call for federal financial help and decompression strategy, saying that 54,000 migrants are currently in the city’s care.
“This cannot continue, it is not sustainable, and we're not going to pretend as though it is sustainable,” he said. “This is wrong that New York City is carrying the weight of a national problem.”
Mayor Eric Adams said the potential shelters at Creedmoor and Aqueduct Racetrack are “still on the table” Wednesday, while also announcing new shelter limits and outreach programs he hopes will aid in the migrant crisis. Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
On Wednesday, Adams announced that adult men and women asylum seekers in city shelters will have 60 days to find alternative housing from the day they arrive. Adams claimed the policy change will allow for more shelter space for migrant families arriving to the city.
City officials said that if the individuals do not find alternative housing upon their eviction, they will be placed “somewhere else,” denying that the policy will lead to an increase in street homelessness.
Also, the city is beginning a border outreach effort, which will include flyers that warn potential migrants that there is no guarantee shelter is available in the city, that New York’s housing and cost of living is the highest in the U.S and which plainly states that migrants should “consider another city.”
“Without proper state and federal assistance…the city must make difficult choices,” Adams said.
