Kathmandu: NYC Mayor Adams declared a state of emergency Friday over the city’s migrant crisis and pleaded for financial and legislative assistance from the federal government and state lawmakers.
According to the New York Daily News, the declaration will suspend certain land-use requirements so the city can more rapidly set up emergency housing for migrants, such as the controversial tent camp set to be constructed on Randalls Island, Adams said in a speech from City Hall.
But the declaration only goes so far.
With more than 17,000 South and Central American migrants currently in the city, the homeless shelter system is nearly at 100% capacity and social services are being strained to the brink of collapse, Adams said.
As a result, Adams demanded that President Biden’s administration and Albany lawmakers do what they can to help, including allocating emergency funding and passing legislation that would expedite work permits for the migrants.
The massive influx of migrants has placed a big burden on the city’s homeless shelter system. That pressure has led to several apparent violations of the state’s right-to-shelter law, which requires the city to provide housing to anyone who seeks it within a proscribed timeframe.
To relieve the burden on shelters, Adams signaled last week that he planned to house some migrants in tents at an Orchard Beach parking lot in the Bronx.
But earlier this week, he reversed himself over concerns of flooding there. Instead, he opted to move the tent encampments to Randalls Island.
(News Source: New York Daily News)