Migrant numbers in New York City are rising at an alarming rate, surpassing the local homeless population for the first time.
According to NBC4 New York, the city is currently providing care for around 50,000 migrants in various accommodations, including local hotels and temporary shelters. In comparison, there are approximately 49,700 homeless residents in the city.
This influx is partly due to individuals crossing the southern border illegally, with some being transported by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. “My heart breaks a little bit, and I have these conflicting feelings,” said Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom during a tour of the newly converted Roosevelt Hotel migrant shelter.
Democratic Mayor Eric Adams has proposed a solution, suggesting that New York City residents could help by offering shelter to migrants in their own homes. “It is my vision to take the next step to this, to go to the faith-based locales and then move to private residents, there are residents who are suffering right now because of economic challenges,” he said in early June.
Adams envisions that this could also help financially struggling New Yorkers, saying, “They have spare rooms, they have locales and if we can find a way to get over the 30-day rule and other rules that government has in its place, we can take that $4.2 billion, $4.3 maybe now, that we potentially will have to spend, and we can put it back in the pockets of everyday New Yorkers, everyday houses of worship, instead of putting it in the pockets of corporations.”
Furthermore, Adams has been directly involved in relocation efforts, busing migrants to suburbs, Republican-run states like Florida and Texas, South America, and even to China. There are also reports of migrants crossing into Canada illegally from areas to which they were transported by Adams.
The Mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
