NY Migrants Reject Floyd Bennett Housing and Get Back on Bus

Floyd Bennett FieldPhoto by<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Soon after entering the expansive facility on Sunday, a number of immigrant families with children who had been bussed to a recently opened shelter at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn boarded another bus and informed the city they were unhappy with their newly provided accommodations.

Although conceding that there was nowhere else for refugees to go if they refused the shelter, City Hall stated that some families had expressed a desire not to reside there. Families of migrants who took an MTA bus with kids to the abandoned airport on Sunday made a U-turn and boarded the bus again with their belongings.

Brooklyn Assemblyperson Jamie Williams said, "Families got off of the bus and saw the accommodations,” she said in a text message from the airfield. “When they realized they wouldn’t be staying at a hotel, they refused to stay and demanded to be taken somewhere else. They were not told in advance that they would be going a tent city.”

In contrast to traditional family shelters, Floyd Bennett Field migrants were slated to live in groups known as pods. The rooms had no kitchens and were not completely private.

Williams and Queens Councilmember Joann Ariola swiftly rejected Adams' use of the Floyd Bennett Field as a shelter, pointing out that the area's designation as a floodplain was one of the reasons the site was inappropriate. Since then, Ariola has sued the city and the state, requesting a judge close down the site.

"This is a remote location, far from any transportation hubs, and lacking in any real infrastructure, and it is simply not suitable for habitation,” Ariola said in a statement. “We’ve been told that, of the handful that initially opted to stay, most of them are now requesting to be transferred as well.

According to the NY Post, one of the MTA bus drivers said workers were stunned when many of the asylum seekers bussed to the site refused to stay.

“We were shocked when they turned around and left — shocked,” the driver told The Post. “Only a few people stayed. We didn’t see that coming.”