New York New York | Migrants Will Sleep Outdoors Because ‘There Is No More Room,’ Adams Says Give

ill Sleep Outdoors Because ‘There Is No More Room,’ Adams Says Give this article Account

Migrants Will Sleep Outdoors Because

‘There Is No More Room,’ Adams Says
Mayor Eric Adams said New York had run out of shelter space for
migrants, and he defended a troubled contractor working with the
city on its response.

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Mayor Eric Adams said that the city had run out of indoor space to house asylum
seekers, and that scenes of migrants sleeping outside would become more
common. David Dee Delgado for The New York Times

By Emma G. Fitzsimmons and Jay Root

July 31, 2023

The images outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan

early Monday were stark: Scores of migrants huddled in a line
stretching more than a block, some still sleeping as they waited to
be processed in New York City’s intake center.

Hours later, Mayor Eric Adams declared that the city had entered a
new phase in its migrant crisis, and that the scene outside the
Roosevelt Hotel could become more common and widespread.

As the Adams administration struggles to respond to an influx of

90,000 migrants from the southern border, the mayor, a Democrat,
said that the city had run out of indoor space to house people and
that the situation was only going to deteriorate.

“It’s not going to get any better,” he said at a news conference at

City Hall on Monday. “From this moment on, it’s downhill. There is
no more room.”

Mr. Adams said that he wanted to “localize this madness” so that

people sleeping outdoors were contained to certain parts of the city,
without identifying the potential locations or making it clear if
people would be sleeping on sidewalks or in tents.

“Our next phase of the strategy now that we have run out of room,
we have to figure out how we’re going to localize the inevitable that
there’s no more room indoors,” he said at an unrelated news
conference on public safety.

But Mr. Adams warned that migrants would not be allowed to sleep
wherever they want: “I can assure you that this city is not going to
look like other cities where there are tents up and down every
street.”

The mayor’s comments came a day after The New York Times
revealed that the city gave a medical services firm a no-bid $432
million contract to assist with its migrant crisis. The firm, DocGo,
has bused hundreds of asylum seekers upstate to cities including
Albany, but many of the migrants there said that they felt misled
and abandoned, and that local security guards hired by DocGo had
repeatedly threatened them.

DocGo, which provided Covid testing and vaccination services

during the pandemic, is also involved in running the city’s “arrival
center” for migrants at the Roosevelt Hotel. Over the weekend,
people were seen sleeping outside the hotel with blankets , and
vans were provided so that people could cool off on a hot summer
day.

The Roosevelt, a sprawling 1,000-room hotel on East 45th Street

near Grand Central Terminal, had been closed for nearly three
years when Mr. Adams announced in May that it would serve as an
arrival center. Staff members from DocGo help with the intake
process and provide medical services, according to city officials.

Mr. Adams defended DocGo at the news conference on Monday,

saying that it had done good work responding to the pandemic and
the migrant crisis. The mayor said he still had confidence in the
firm while vowing to correct any deficiencies.

“We’re going to scrutinize them,” Mr. Adams said. “We’re going to

make sure — here’s your contract, here are the services, if you do
something wrong we’re going to bring you in, and say you have to
correct it. But they’ve done a herculean job of this humanitarian
crisis that we’re facing.”

Mr. Adams suggested that any problems associated with DocGo in

Albany appeared to be limited to a few workers.

“When you have thousands of employees, are you going to find one
or two that’s going to do something wrong?” he said. “Yes, you
are.”

DocGo officials said on Monday night that the “subcontractor

employees in question are no longer employed at the emergency
sites,” adding that the firm will begin to evaluate new security
vendors for its sites upstate.

Local officials in areas where DocGo has sent busloads of asylum

seekers have expressed frustration with the company’s
performance, and migrant advocates say DocGo has spread
misinformation about migrants’ ability to work in New York.

Mayor Kathy Sheehan of Albany said she was frustrated with a

lack of communication from DocGo and found it “troubling” that
representatives of the contractor had provided documents to
asylum seekers claiming they were “eligible for employment” as
independent contractors.

“We’re talking about millions and millions and millions of dollars

that are being provided to fund this work,” Ms. Sheehan said. “And
I want to understand who’s responsible for auditing this,

overseeing it, verifying what’s being done and ensuring that these
taxpayer dollars that are being spent on these efforts are actually
doing good as opposed to causing harm.”

At the news conference , Mr. Adams’s main message on the migrant

crisis was focused on its impact on New York City. The mayor has
criticized the Biden administration for not doing more to help, and
Mr. Adams called again on Monday for federal changes allowing
migrants to work legally.

The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless criticized
the mayor's handling of the crisis and said that allowing migrants
to sleep on the streets was “heartbreaking and maddening.”

“Denying new arrivals placement and forcing people to languish on

local streets is cruel and runs afoul of a range of court orders and
local laws,” the groups said in a joint statement.

Emma G. Fitzsimmons is the City Hall bureau chief, covering politics in New York City.
She previously covered the transit beat and breaking news. More about Emma G.
Fitzsimmons
Jay Root is an investigative reporter based in Albany, N.Y. More about Jay Root
A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 1, 2023 , Section A , Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline:
Nowhere to Put Migrants, New York Mayor Says . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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Explore Our Coverage of the Adams Administration

Migrant Crisis: As New York City struggles to accommodate new migrants, Mayor
Eric Adams is leading a change of strategy that sees the city take a sharp
departure from its long-held status as a sanctuary city and as a place that
guarantees a right to shelter.
Re-election Bid: Despite falling poll numbers and critical news coverage, Mayor
Eric Adams has continued to receive substantial support from two influential
groups: real estate leaders and the donor class from New York City and beyond.
New N.Y.P.D. Commissioner: The mayor announced that Edward Caban, who had
been serving as acting commissioner, would become the first Latino officer to lead
the N.Y.P.D. in its 177-year history .

Housing: A dispute between Adams and the City Council intensified, as the
Council voted to override the mayor’s veto and expand a city housing voucher
program designed to address rising homelessness.
Adams’s Religious Base: Midway through his second year as mayor, Adams has
come to rely more heavily than ever on the religious segment of his multiethnic
support base, especially when signs of trouble arise, as they have in recent
weeks.
A True Story?: The mayor has often talked about a wrinkled photo of a fallen
police officer that he kept in his wallet. Now that picture and the story behind it
have been called into question .

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