New York— A related issue has arisen as New York City struggles to house almost 65,000 southern border asylum-seekers: Sleeping outside is becoming more common.
An encampment grows every evening on Randall’s Island, home to one of the city’s largest migrant shelters until hundreds of tents line the riverside. Migrants cook over little fires, shower with buckets, and sleep under the stars as the sun sets behind Manhattan.
Ten miles south, West African and Latin American men sleep on unclean cobblestone under a highway overpass near a Brooklyn migrant shelter. A few refugees flatten cardboard boxes and spread bedsheets at a playground. Some sleep on sidewalks or on subway cars till sunrise.
The city’s two biggest problems—a two-year migrant inflow and street homelessness—may be merging in groups of unsheltered migrants.
The New York Times interviewed more than a dozen refugees this week who said they had been sleeping outside for two months and saw many more in early-morning trips to migrant shelters.
After the city tightened shelter stay limitations in late May, some refugees were thrown out. Others have braved the elements voluntarily.
Because they were placed to far-flung shelters like a Kennedy International Airport warehouse miles from their work, some opted to sleep outside. Many migrants left the city’s enormous congregate facilities, where thousands of people sleep in rows of folding cots, due to hazardous, disorderly, and unclean circumstances.
Their calculation was simple: they feel safer outside.
“We all take care of each other,” said Estefanía Cevallos, 31, who slept in an orange tent on Randall’s Island with views of Harlem for a month with five other Latin American migrants. We didn’t expect it, but it’s part of the process.”
For Democrat Mayor Eric Adams, turning New York City into a humanitarian refuge for almost 200,000 stranded migrants since early 2022 has been a political conundrum. New Yorkers’ quality-of-life problems and city budget strain have increased due to the inflow.
Overwhelmed by the migrant influx, New York City officials must balance cajoling migrants out of a strained shelter system without increasing street homelessness, which could fuel Republican attacks before the presidential election and fan anti-immigrant sentiment in a city where residents’ views on immigration are still tested.
Recently, the city changed its right-to-shelter requirement to provide a bed to homeless people. This year, it limited adult migrants’ shelter stays to 30 or 60 days.
Many people are being granted extensions, thus the changes have not caused a major wave of evictions, as some homeless advocates expected. Since the city recently learned it cannot deny asylum or temporary protection status applicants housing, many have stayed. They are entitled to public services like shelter due to their immigration status.
That means migrants who have applied for asylum can stay in shelters indefinitely while their claims are heard, which might take years.
After being evicted, many migrants are unsheltered, but the city and homeless advocacy groups don’t know how many. They join the 4,000 New York City street and subway sleepers.
“It’s a question on everybody’s mind,” said Coalition for the Homeless executive director Dave Giffen. “Undoubtedly more people sleep in public spaces now.”
Fuller picture of city’s migrant issue seems less bleak. Last week, 64,300 asylum-seekers were in the shelter system, down from 69,000 in January, in part due to President Joe Biden’s border crackdown, which reduced Mexican border crossings to a three-year low.
The Biden policy has had an impact on New York, where 800 migrants joined the shelter system last week, down from 1,200 the week before and much below the city’s May 2023 top of 4,300.
Still, Adams’ administration’s latest challenge is stopping refugees from sleeping in parks and on the streets.
Despite the city’s occasional attempts to knock them down, dozens of migrants have set up nightly tent encampments outside a massive migrant shelter on Randall’s Island’s southwest corner, where the city is housing over 3,000 migrants.
Randall’s Island, a remote strip of primarily recreational land in the northern East River between Queens and Manhattan, is home to football-field-sized tents where migrants sleep on cots and shower in trailers. Overcrowding has caused shelter issues: There are often fights and small thefts, and three migrants were stabbed and shot this year.
The Randall’s Island area Alliance, a nonprofit that maintains the area, has vowed to sue the city over the August 2023 migrant facility. The shelter sits on 10 acres of public parkland, including four former children’s athletic fields.
Despite being remote from residential districts, Randall’s Island shelter is a flashpoint. After a series of violent episodes, police raided the shelter last week for contraband but found nothing and made no arrests.
Some migrants seek shelter outside the shelter system due to violence. Migrants sleep on blankets, tarps over tree branches, or colorful Amazon camping tents. Together, they buy eggs, bread, and meat to make breakfast and stews to sell or share.
Park security rushes to remove the tents in the morning and reassemble them at night.
Guinean Mamadou Alpha Kaba, 30, has been sleeping outside for a month after being evicted for not applying for asylum after his immigration papers were taken in Randall’s Island shelter. Five other African guys who were evicted for not filing asylum petitions are his pals.
His companions use tents and homemade mattresses. On the ground, Kaba sleeps.
“Like this,” he remarked in French, pointing to grass and dirt around him. “No tent. Can’t afford it.”
City officials oppose the encampment.
“That’s not OK,” said Anne Williams-Isom, the city’s migrant response deputy mayor, Tuesday. We’re not trying to be heavy-handed, but if you’ve had your time and case management and must leave, you must move on.”
A City Hall official noted that most migrants who have stayed in the shelter system have gone on, citing the city’s efforts to help thousands file for asylum and work permits.
Some citizens view Randall’s Island as a foolish use of government money since it reminds them of the billions the city and state are paying to house migrants. Barry Bliss, 59, a Bronx resident, contemplates it on his 50-minute Randall’s Island walk to his Metropolitan Museum of Art security guard job.
“This is what I work for?” he asked, gesturing to the shelter. My tax money goes there? Taxes reduce my hourly wage to $12. Where does that go? My old library closed. Then how should I feel?
Some migrants have encountered unexpected obstacles on the city’s streets while fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries.
About 10 guys from Mauritania in West Africa have been sleeping under a tree on Steuben Playground in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, where three migrants were fatally shot last month near two shelters sheltering more than 4,000 migrants.
Men use a plastic cement bucket to wash and dry their clothing on a fence. On a camping stove, they create fragrant Mauritanian coffee. Sleeping on unfolded cardboard boxes. When it rains, they sleep under a Brooklyn-Queens Expressway overpass with their bags and things.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Queens resident Carlos Hurtado, who parks beneath the freeway every morning and sometimes feeds the guys bread.
Ibrahiima, 46, from Mauritania took off his clothing and rinsed himself at Steuben Playground’s water fountain on Wednesday morning after sleeping under the overpass.
Ibrahiima, who requested anonymity, said he felt stunted by the Clinton Hill shelter’s unfriendly personnel, poor food, and fears of becoming sick.
The self-proclaimed artist, musician, and poet has attempted to stay positive despite two months on the street.
He remarked, “Man is called to live the difficult in order to know an easy tomorrow.” You must be practical—it can’t always be good. You must realize that it’s the cost of living because you’re coming to the US to start over.
