Mayor to close 'tent city' for asylum seekers on Randall's Island

The Adams administration is set to close a tent facility on Randall’s Island for asylum seekers, less than a month after the controversial facility first opened, City Hall announced Thursday evening.

The mayor's office said the number of migrants arriving in the city in recent months had reached roughly 23,800, but that the rate had slowed, meaning the sprawling tent site was no longer required.

In its place, the administration will open a 600-room facility to temporarily house single adult migrant men in the Watson Hotel in Midtown starting next week.

“We continue to welcome asylum seekers arriving in New York City with compassion and care. This Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center will provide asylum seekers with a place to stay, access support, and get to their final destination,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.

The city Office of Emergency Management and Health and Hospitals will help run the site with private contractors, and the staff will be majority bilingual, according to City Hall and an email Gothamist obtained from a Mayor’s Office of State Legislative Affairs staffer to elected officials. City Limits was the first to report the move.

In a statement Thursday night, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said the legislative body had always advocated for indoor sites that were not remotely located.

"People who seek asylum in our city deserve to be treated with dignity, care and compassion, and we always believed this was more appropriate," she said. "I’m pleased to see the administration implement this model that the Council recommended by closing the Randall’s Island HERRC and opening a new site in the Watson Hotel. This is the right approach for these intake services, and there remains important work and policy changes for the city to advance that move people out of shelter, such as removing the 90-day in-shelter requirement for CityFHEPS rental vouchers, and provide the critical supports for the individuals and families seeking asylum and all New Yorkers."

The tent site was erected on Randall’s Island just three weeks ago – after the Adams administration reversed course on a plan to build an encampment on the flood-prone parking lot of Orchard’s Beach.

It was meant to serve 500 single men, with space for an additional 500, according to officials.The city spent $325,000 to build the new Randall’s Island complex and roughly the same amount to initially site the camp at Orchard Beach, according to Zach Iscol, the Emergency Management commissioner. The city has declined to say how many migrants are currently using the facility.

Murad Awawdeh, executive director for the New York Immigration Coalition, applauded the mayor's decision as one that would more readily connect asylum seekers with other city services such as mass transit.

“Still, is imperative that the city moves quickly to offer permanent housing to longtime shelter residents and others stuck in the city’s overburdened shelter system," Awawdeh said in a statement. "The city must also expand eligibility of CityFEPS to include families and individuals regardless of immigration status, and fill the vacancies in all Community Housing Improvement Program [CHIP] apartments."

This story has been updated.