City to open migrant relief center near old psychiatric hospital in Queens

The city will open a new relief center for asylum-seekers on the campus of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Wednesday.

The new site, slated to be built on the old psychiatric center’s campus in a parking lot, will host up to 1,000 adult male asylum seekers, the mayor’s office said. The announcement follows concerns from nearby residents and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards regarding the shelter’s location and whether it would compete with proposals to use the area to build affordable housing.

The announcement of the additional so-called Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center comes as more than 56,200 asylum-seekers are currently in the city’s care, according to City Hall stats. The city is expected to spend $4.2 billion this fiscal year caring for migrants who’ve come to the five boroughs in the last year.

Last week, the Adams administration distributed flyers discouraging migrants at the US-Mexico from traveling to New York City, citing the over 90,000 asylum-seekers who already arrived since April 2022 as well as the high cost of housing. Adams also said the city would begin distributing 60-day removal notices to adult migrants in its shelters.

In a statement, Richards said that the borough’s willingness to welcome refugees “should not be confused with naiveté,” and called on the mayor’s office to create a community advisory board to address concerns surrounding the center’s announcement.

Chris Barca, a spokesperson for Richards, said Richards' office is concerned over the "a relative lack of public transportation in the immediate area around the Creedmoor campus and the city’s ability to deliver basic services like food and water for consumption and bathing, as well as more comprehensive services like legal assistance.”

Last month, Richards and hundreds of Queens residents called on the city to build affordable housing units on the campus of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, a tract of land spanning around half a mile south of the hospital.

In a Wednesday press release on the new center, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said that the ongoing effort to support asylum seekers is “an unsustainable effort” without the support of a “national decompression strategy” from the federal government.

City Hall did not respond to request for comment on when the 1,000-bed facility might open.

So far the city has opened a dozen similar relief centers, with an additional one slated to open “in the coming weeks,” the mayor’s press release noted.