Come back next year: Asylum seeker resource center in Manhattan lacks resources

Two Venezuelan men staying in a Bronx shelter arrived at the Hell’s Kitchen Asylum Seeker Resource Center on Thursday afternoon with folders of paperwork in hand, seeking information on how to get MetroCards, cell phones, and answers to dozens of urgent questions about their immigration cases.

Both men were turned away and given slips of paper for appointments in mid-January.

“We have to wait until the ninth of January,” Yadira Garzon, 23, said in Spanish. She’d hoped to learn about signing her 4-year-old son up for health insurance and getting a MetroCard and cell phones for herself and her husband. “We wanted information because we didn’t know, but now the appointments aren’t for a while.”

Garzon was among the many people who spoke with Gothamist outside the center this week after leaving with unanswered questions about health insurance, transportation, and their immigration status. While some were handed vouchers for food and single-swipe MetroCards, many were also told to come back in the new year for more assistance.

“It has to be because of the number of people looking for help. I get it. We know there’s a lot of migrants here today in New York,” said Fernando Quevedo, 28, who arrived in New York City from the southern border on Sunday, in Spanish. “But we’re still thankful for the help, truly.”

Mayor Eric Adams opened the resource center in September, touting it as one of the first stops for asylum seekers arriving from the U.S.-Mexico border. Catholic Charities was awarded $4.5 million to operate the center, which is supposed to assist migrants in scheduling appointments, managing their immigration status, and navigating the city.

“While other leaders have abdicated their moral duty to support arriving asylum seekers, New York City refuses to do so,” Adams said on Sept. 22.

The backlog for appointments at the resource center inside Red Cross offices is another symptom of a city system stretched to the limit. More than 21,000 asylum seekers have arrived in the five boroughs since the spring. The surge in migrants has pushed the city's shelter population to historic heights. Volunteers across the city have organized donations of food, clothes, and supplies. The city erected a sprawling tent encampment on Randall’s Island that cost $650,000. It appears only a handful of migrants are staying at the 1,000-bed tent facility as the flow of migrants has slowed. City officials have refused to provide a head count.

Delays at the resource center have prompted migrants to return to the Port Authority Bus Terminal 10 blocks away, advocates say.

Ilze Thielmann, with Team TLC — one of the groups that has welcomed new arrivals at the Port Authority Bus Terminal daily since early August — estimates between 100 and 200 people return to the Port Authority Bus Terminal each day seeking everything from food and clothes to help with immigration issues and finding a job.

“Clearly [the resource center is] not serving enough people,” said Thielmann. “People are not getting their kids enrolled in school, they’re not getting enrolled in health insurance, and they're not getting whatever support they're supposed to be receiving.”

Thielmann said the city should further increase the number of people it’s able to help at the resource center, and allow the volunteer groups to continue operating at the Port Authority Bus Terminal even if bus arrivals drop off.

Power Malu with the group Artists, Athletes, and Activists called the situation “mind-boggling.”

“Here they are looking for help and when they get directed to go to this resource center, there are no resources for them at the moment,” he said. “‘Just come back in a month or two,’ and then where are they going? They're coming back to the Port Authority.”

At a closed-door briefing with members of the City Council on Thursday, a recording of which was obtained by Gothamist, Manuel Castro, the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, said the center has ramped up capacity to serve 150 to 200 people per day, and will add space on another floor of the facility on West 49th Street in two to three weeks. Castro said the city plans to finalize the other nonprofits operating satellite resource centers across the city by next week.

“There’s 20,000-plus people trying to access services,” said Castro, when asked about delays. “As we add appointments, they run out… But we'll continue to add appointments, for those who need assistance.”

Kate Smart, a spokesperson for the mayor, said the center can sometimes take walk-ins if people with scheduled appointments don’t show up.

"As the city has continued to welcome this influx of asylum seekers, the Navigation Center has been a vital resource to arriving families and individuals, connecting thousands of people with school enrollment, medical, mental health, lDNYC, Fair Fares, and other services,” Smart said in an email.

Some migrants leaving the resource center who had made appointments a month ago left with cell phones and health care.

But mother Jenifer Arcia, who was sitting on the stoop outside the center, said she’d given up on trying to get help. She’d had an appointment earlier in the week, but had to leave early to pick up her son from school before finishing some paperwork. When she returned to try to wrap up on Thursday, she was turned away.

“The man told me 'no,' that the service had already been given to me and I had to resolve the issue on my own,” Arcia said, adding that she was still trying to figure out how to obtain a MetroCard, health insurance and an ID. She’d watched, frustrated as others left the center with cell phones in hand. “It seems like a question of luck.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Fernando Quevedo, 28.