City to build migrant shelter at Creedmoor
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A 1,000-bed migrant tent shelter will soon be built on the Creedmoor campus, city officials announced on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. Eagle file photo by Ryan Schwach
By Jacob Kaye
Despite pushback from a number of Eastern Queens officials, the city announced on Wednesday that a 1,000-bed shelter for adult male asylum seekers will open at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center campus in the coming months.
Mayor Eric Adams’ administration said on Wednesday that construction of the shelter will begin in “the coming weeks” and that the shelter slated to become the city’s 14th Humanitarian Emergency Referral and Response Center will open “shortly after” its construction is complete.
The shelter announcement comes a week after over half a dozen local officials gathered near the Eastern Queens site to call on the mayor to reconsider the plan to build a migrant shelter on the Creedmoor campus.
A number of the officials opposed to the project warned that the site didn’t have the infrastructure to offer migrants a dignified stay, and that its lack of public transportation would have an isolating effect on those sent there. The officials also criticized what they said was a lack of communication from the administration and the state about its plans for the site and for dealing with the asylum seeker crisis in general.
Even on Wednesday, local electeds told the Eagle that they learned first of the finalized Creedmoor plan from the state and not the city officials who announced it. The new facility, which will be built on a parking lot within the Creedmoor campus, will be paid for by the state. The state not only owns the land, but is currently in the early stages of redeveloping the long-abandoned campus – state officials did not respond to request for comment on how the shelter will impact their development plans, which have already been delayed.
But regardless of the pushback, Adams has said throughout the crisis that all options for housing asylum seekers – who are arriving in New York City by the thousands each week – are on the table.
In addition to the Creedmoor site, his administration has floated housing migrants at the Aqueduct Racetrack, Floyd Bennett Field and Rikers Island.
Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, who made the Creedmoor announcement on Wednesday, said that the opening of the Eastern Queens will serve as another tool to open up beds in the city’s shelters.
“This will allow for some relief and some space for families with children,” she said.
The Creedmoor announcement was coupled with an update on the city’s new 60-day rule, which dictates that adult migrant men and women can stay no longer than 60 days in a city shelter. The rule went into effect this week, and some of the adult migrants who have been in the shelter system longest have begun to receive eviction notices, Williams-Isom said.
The rule is intended to free up space in the city’s shelters, according to City Hall.
Like the 60-day rule, the Creedmoor plan has been met with staunch opposition.
On Wednesday, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said that while he supports the city’s efforts to welcome asylum seekers, he believes that Creedmoor is not the place to do it.
“As I have said repeatedly throughout the asylum seeker crisis and again over the last few weeks, Queens will always open its arms to any and all people wishing to seek refuge and build a better life here,” Richards said.
“But that openness should not be confused with naiveté,” he added.
The borough president called on the mayor to create a community advisory board, made up of local elected officials and neighborhood leaders, to monitor the HERRC. He also repeated his and others’ call for the Adams administration to be more communicative about its plans to build shelters throughout the borough and city.
“The success of this effort hinges upon an efficient, constant channel of communication between the state, city and borough, as well as a community-informed decision making process around ensuring the needs of our asylum seekers are met and the concerns of area residents are heard,” the borough president said.
Local City Councilmember Linda Lee, who attended last week’s rally against the Creedmoor plan, said last week that “though viewpoints on handling this humanitarian crisis may differ, we agree that Creedmoor is an inadequate location.”
“That site is not a viable location for several reasons,” Lee said 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.”
Lee did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Wednesday.
The placement of HERRCs and temporary migrant shelters has been a consistent point of contention between the mayor and various members of the City Council over the past year. But as local officials pointed fingers at the mayor over the Creedmoor plan, the mayor pointed his fingers toward Washington, D.C.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the mayor thanked the state for aiding the city in the building of the shelter at Creedmoor, but called on the federal government to provide a more permanent solution to the crisis that has seen approximately 93,000 asylum seekers arrive to the five boroughs in the last year.
Mayor Eric Adams announced on Wednesday that the city will soon begin construction on a 1,000-bed migrant shelter at Creedmoor. File photo by Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Photography Office
“We need a national solution here,” Adams said. “We’re grateful to New York State for this support opening our newest humanitarian relief center as we continue to work to help asylum seekers reach their final destination. New York City needs additional support from all our partners to address this issue.”
The mayor’s call to the federal government was echoed on Wednesday by Queens Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar, a longtime Adams ally who has championed a number of the mayor’s policies and positions.
In an open letter to President Joe Biden signed by 54 elected officials at both the state and local level, Rajkumar called on the president to declare a state of emergency, create a method to send migrants from the border to a number of cities including New York, send more funds to New York City to deal with the crisis and to expedite work authorization for those awaiting approval of their asylum applications.
“Our city is at a breaking point,” Rajkumar said in the letter. “We take pride in New York being a beacon of hope for immigrants, but the influx of migrants is so great that the city is running out of resources. New York City is being forced to reduce services for its people.”
“This is one of the most significant humanitarian crises New York City has ever faced,” she added. “We cannot face it alone.”
Rajkumar joined a rally last week at Aqueduct Racetrack, where officials and local leaders had gathered in protest of plans to bring a HERRC to the horse racing site. Despite opposition over the plan expressed by a vast majority of those in attendance, Rajkumar, who spoke at the rally, called on the federal government to expedite migrants’ work authorization applications.
Rajkumar’s suggestion was shouted down by some in the crowd, who chimed in with unproven fears that migrants would “take jobs.”
Though the city has yet to announce official plans to bring a HERRC to Aqueduct, a City Hall spokesperson told the Eagle on Wednesday that the site remains a shelter option.
Since the start of the crisis, the city has opened approximately 190 shelters and a little more than a dozen HERRCs.
Officials within the mayor’s administration claim the city has spent $1.5 billion on the asylum seeker crisis thus far and that they expect to spend at least 4 billion by the end of next June, though that figure has been disputed.
