Lack of shelter beds forcing migrants to sleep in buses, on streets in New York
New York, Jul 30 (EFE).- A number of migrants who recently arrived in New York City spent the night in the open air and on parked buses in front of a Manhattan hotel that is being used to provide shelter for recent arrivals but which, authorities say, has no room for any more people.
According to local media, small buses with the capacity for 15 people began arriving at the Roosevelt Hotel on the weekend with the aim of offering migrants – mainly single men – a space to rest, refresh themselves and take stock of their situations amid the current heat wave in the Big Apple.
Ultimately, the vehicles were used as sleeping quarters by many of the men, while others bedded down along the sidewalks while they waited to get a bed somewhere, whether in the hotel or at other sites set up to receive migrants.
A spokesman for the mayor’s office told channel NY1 that local authorities are continuing to give priorities to children and families and are able to find accommodations for all of them each night, but they said that the city currently does not have the capacity to shelter the hundreds of new migrants who are arriving each day.
The wave of migrants – most of them from Latin America and seeking asylum – has been a constant flow since last year, with almost 100,000 arriving over that time, more than 50,000 of whom are under the care of the city, which in addition to shelter is also providing food for them, registering their children in school and offering healthcare services and other aid.
Earlier in July, Mayor Eric Adams announced that local authorities were forced to put an end to the city’s policy of providing open-ended lodging for any arriving migrants and established a limit of 60 days of shelter for such people, after which they would have to find other accommodations with “friends or relatives,” all this with the aim of ensuring that migrant families with children continue to have lodging.
EFE –/bp
