Migrants fear sleeping on the streets as NYC moves to kick them out of shelters

Some migrants living in New York City’s emergency homeless shelters may have to leave as soon as this weekend under a measure by the Adams administration aimed at curbing the city's growing shelter population.

Since late July, city officials have notified over 10,800 adult migrants staying in emergency shelters that they have 60 days to find a new place to stay, or reapply for another bed at the city's migrant intake center at the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown.

The city expects that only a small number of migrants will reapply for shelter, according to City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamalek. That's because caseworkers provided by the city have been helping those who have received notices with transitioning out of shelters and finding other places to go, she said.

But migrants who spoke to Gothamist expressed fear and uncertainty as the deadline approaches.

“Of course I'm worried. I’ve been here two months. No work, no job, nothing. And they give us that paper,” said Sid Ahmed Kerkoub, a native of Mauritania who’s been residing at a shelter in Upper Manhattan.

“I don't want to be in [the] streets,” Kerkoub added, noting that he has 50 days to find new housing.

Kerkoub said if he’s able to find a job and rent his own place, he will. Otherwise, he’ll return to the Roosevelt Hotel to apply for another place to stay.

Another Mauritanian migrant, Mohammed, 28, said he was shocked when he received notice that he had to leave his Brooklyn shelter early next month.

“We don't have any place to go,” said Mohammed, who asked not to publicly share his last name for fear of jeopardizing his immigration case. “Especially for those who don't have relatives outside New York.”

A notice letter shared with Gothamist by activist Power Malu, who’s been assisting newcomers for the last year, says in Spanish that "As of Sept. 22, 2023, you can no longer stay in this location." The letter was given to a migrant staying at an emergency shelter in the Candler Building in Midtown, Malu said.

City Hall says the earliest deadline for migrants to leave shelters comes on Saturday, Sept. 23.

Adams administration officials testified at a City Council probe last month that the policy's goal is to curb the rising shelter population and free up space for the hundreds of new migrants arriving daily. But the officials would not guarantee those reapplying for shelter would receive beds.

Officials added they would not rule out the possibility of more migrants sleeping outside the Roosevelt Hotel, as nearly 200 of them did on some days this summer in scenes captured on viral videos and both national and international news.

"We are exceptionally proud that our enhanced casework services are working and expect it to continue to be effective for the adult asylum-seekers who have received 60-day notices," Mamalek said in a statement. "But let’s be clear: New York City has passed its breaking point and we cannot continue to do this alone.”

“If we do not receive the meaningful help we’ve been calling for from our state and federal partners, we will have to make more difficult decisions and it is possible we will see more heartbreaking realities, like the one we saw outside the Roosevelt Hotel this summer," Mamalek added.

Mamalek said she was unable to provide the number of migrants who have received bus or plane tickets to relocate.

Local elected officials and immigration and housing advocates have voiced fears that the shelter stay limits would lead to more street homelessness.

Malu and Adama Bah —  who have been helping new arrivals find other places to stay for more than a year — say more migrants have already been sleeping on the street, often in train stations, because they feel unsafe in staying in city shelters.

Many migrants have been shuffled between different sites even before the 60-day deadline, causing confusion and disarray, according to Malu and Bah.

Newcomers are often moved from temporary congregate “respite centers,” as the mayor’s office has referred to them, to sprawling tent cities erected on soccer fields on Randall’s Island and on a parking lot on the grounds of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens.

"They have no plans. What can they plan to do? Nothing but continue to try to look for work and try to figure out ways they can provide for themselves and their families," said Malu, the director and founder of the nonprofit Artists Athletes Activists, through which he conducts his migrant advocacy work. "Their mental health is being messed with because they're trying to find work and at the same time, they're worrying they're going to end up in the street again."

He added: "You're just causing unnecessary suffering.”

"You should at least give them a year timeline," said Bah, because migrants have to apply for asylum within a year of arriving in the U.S.. Bah is the founder of the advocacy group Afrikana, through which she assists local migrants, especially those who face racial profiling and harassment.

A year after the first chartered migrant buses from Texas arrived in the city, Malu said that "they continue to be in limbo."