There’s no room at the inn — except for migrants.
Three more hotel sites in Queens are being used as “sanctuary” shelters to help house the seemingly never-ending flood of southern-border migrants into New York City.
The city’s Department of Homeless Services has awarded a total of nearly $17 million in new contracts to two social-service providers to manage a pair of new migrant shelters: one at the former Ramada Wyndham at 164-40 Hillside Ave. in Jamaica and the other at the site of the former Marriott Courtyard at 90-10 Ditmars Blvd. in East Elmhurst, near the Grand Central Parkway and LaGuardia Airport.
Meanwhile, Queens City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino said she received “less than eight hours’ notice” from local officials that the Anchor Inn on Northern Boulevard in Bayside in her district has been converted into an emergency migrant shelter.
The cost of that contract was not immediately known.
Mayor Eric Adams has said the city’s tab to house and care for the avalanche of migrants deluging the Big Apple since spring 2022 could hit $4.3 billion by the end of 2024.
He recently ordered Big Apple agencies to slash their spending to help pay the mind-boggling bill.
Paladino, whose borough has been particularly swamped by the newly arriving migrants, said fatigue and frustration are setting in among local pols and residents.
“Make no mistake, I will continue to work to have this site closed at the earliest possible opportunity,” she said of the Anchor Inn in her district.
“This action was taken with no community input or transparency, which is unacceptable.”
The Republican councilwoman said President Biden’s lax border-enforcement policies are only hurting New Yorkers.
“Our neighborhoods deserve better, and frankly, the migrants deserve an orderly immigration process, not an open borders fiasco,” she wrote in a tweet.
“This cannot continue.”
“We’re spending billions that we simply do not have, all thanks to totally misguided open borders and sanctuary policies. Every New Yorker suffers because of this — especially immigrant communities which are already struggling with employment and housing issues.”
As of April 16, more than 55,300 people illegally crossing the Mexico-US border and then claiming asylum have been processed and provided city services, including shelter at city-financed or supervised facilities, over the past year.
More than 34,600 migrants are currently being cared for by the city, according to Adams’ office.
The city has opened a staggering 103 emergency shelters and eight Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers just to aid the migrants — virtually all of the sites in privately owned hotels or locations or former inns.
The homeless services provider Midway Living was awarded a $12.376 million contract from the city to run the shelter at the former Marriott Courtyard in East Elmhurst.
Migrant families were already being sheltered there, a Post visit Tuesday revealed.
The Neighborhood Association for Inter-Cultural Affairs secured a $4.483 million contract from DHS to operate the sanctuary shelter at the former Ramada Wyndham in Jamaica.
The Anchor Inn in Bayside will function as a shelter for the foreseeable future, not as a commercial hotel, a staffer also confirmed.
“We are not taking customers right now,” a source at the hotel said.
The Anchor Inn already has taken in 30 migrants and is expecting to shelter 70 more.
Even lefty progressives including city Public Advocate Jumaane Williams have agreed with Adams that the Biden Administration and Gov. Kathy Hochul must do more to help the city grapple with the migrants’ crisis.
Williams will join members of New York’s Congressional delegation and immigration activists in the US Capitol in DC on Wednesday to call for federal action on an agenda to address the immediate asylum-seeker problem, as well as call for longer-term immigration reform.
“New York has been the city most impacted by the recent surge of asylum seekers, with more than 50,000 people moving through the city’s intake systems in the last year,” the public advocate’s office said in a statement.
“Public Advocate Williams and other elected officials representing New York City have called for both state and federal aid to help support the newest New Yorkers, and are extending that call beyond funding to include measures that would ease the transition for migrants, establish a number of support services, and reform an inhumane and failing system of immigration infrastructure and enforcement.”
The influx of migrants also has become a big public health concern, with city Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan recently warning that a startling 50% of migrants streaming into the Big Apple are not vaccinated against the contagious and potentially deadly poliovirus and just as many may not be immune to tuberculosis.
He also said there have been outbreaks of chickenpox at migrant shelters.
Vasan urged doctors to ramp up vaccinations of the new arrivals to bolster public health.
https://nypost.com/2023/04/18/inn-coming-migrants-to-occupy-3-more-queens-hotel-sites/
No comments:
Post a Comment