Posted at 5:00 a.m.
Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency in New York on Friday as the city struggles to respond to the influx of tens of thousands of migrants from Latin America.
In a speech at City Hall, Mr. Adams said the City was preparing to spend US$1 billion to deal with the situation and requested federal and state funding to help pay for housing and services for migrants, which have strained the city’s homeless accommodation system.
PHOTO DAVE SANDERS, NEW YORK TIMES
New York Mayor Eric Adams at a news conference in New York where he declared a state of emergency on Friday
“We need help, and we need it now,” Adams said.
Mr. Adams, a Democrat in office since January, said the City was moving forward with plans to build a tent welcome center on Randalls Island in the East River just outside Manhattan. City officials are also negotiating with cruise lines to accommodate migrants aboard a ship.
Mr Adams said the City had been overwhelmed by the approximately 17,000 migrants who had arrived since April, and that he expected up to 100,000 to arrive eventually. At least nine additional migrant coaches arrived on Thursday.
The town hall has set up 42 emergency shelters and enrolled 5,000 children in schools, the mayor said. But he added that she urgently needed additional help to provide services to migrants.
Declaring a state of emergency would allow city officials to move more quickly to provide services, Adams said. He added that the City was also looking for ways to send some migrants to other cities.
Management criticized
“A city recovering from a global pandemic is overwhelmed by a humanitarian crisis,” he said, adding that New York was “on the edge of a precipice.”
Mr Adams has received criticism for his response to the crisis from homeless advocates and city council members, who disagree with efforts to house migrants in tents or on shacks. boats. They called for empty hotels to be used and for shelter residents to be moved to permanent accommodation as quickly as possible.
City officials are considering housing up to 2,700 migrants on a cruise ship and are in discussions with three cruise lines, including Carnival Cruise Line, Frank Carone, the mayor’s chief of staff, said in a brief interview with City Hall. The other two companies are Norwegian Cruise Line and Tallink, which host Ukrainian refugees in Estonia.
City officials are considering various locations for a cruise ship to dock, including a pier on Staten Island called Homeport, located between the St. George Ferry Terminal and the Verrazzano Bridge.
Mr Adams blamed Texas Governor Greg Abbott for failing to coordinate migrant arrivals with his administration and called on him on Friday to stop sending buses to New York and shift the burden to others cities.
“New Yorkers are angry,” Adams said. I am also angry. We didn’t ask for that. »
A call for help
The mayor’s repeated pleas for federal and state aid are also putting pressure on President Joe Biden and New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, a month away from the November election.
When asked if he put Mr. Biden and Mr.me Hochul in a difficult position, Mr. Adams replied: “No, not at all. »
Mr. Adams said he had spoken to Mr. Biden recently about the crisis and that Mr. Biden and Mr.me Hochul understood the challenges facing the City.
They understand that this is an urgent situation and that New York needs help.
Eric Adams, Mayor of New York
Angelo Roefaro, a spokesman for New York Democratic Party Sen. Chuck Schumer, said his office was “in close communication with the Adams team and working with the New York State delegation to get resources and have the Biden administration do whatever it can to be helpful.”
PHOTO PAUL RATJE, REUTERS
The family of Venezuelans Frederik Pinango and Julianis Contreras boarded a bus bound for New York at the Migrant Reception Center in El Paso, Texas on October 3.
On Friday, city officials argued that about a third of migrants arriving in New York want to go to other destinations, including many Venezuelan immigrants who have relatives or friends in Florida. Mr. Adams pointed out that the City was working to transport these migrants to other cities.
The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless released a statement saying they agree with the Mayor that the City needs additional state and federal support, but that the The city’s homeless crisis had begun many years ago.
“The fact that the census of accommodation centers has never been so high is not only due to the influx of asylum seekers, the groups said. It is the City’s historic shameful failure to adequately invest in affordable housing that has continued to fuel mass homelessness. »
The groups also called on New York City to “drop its plan to build tent cities, and focus on high-quality indoor shelter options and permanent housing.”
This article was originally published in the New York Times.