Outside Gracie Mansion Migrants Protest Limits on Shelter Stays

Photo byI, Dmadeo, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>

Outside of Mayor Adams' Gracie Mansion residence on Thursday, dozens of migrants and their advocates erected tents and unrolled sleeping bags to protest the city's recent limits on the length of time migrants can stay before reapplying for housing.

Amaha Kassa, director of African Communities Together, told NY1, "They’re saying that they’re going to be putting migrants like our community members out on the street after 30 days or 60 days. Another New York winter is coming,” Kassa said. “If we don't get leadership from Mayor Adams on the migrant crisis and housing and protecting the right to shelter, we are going to see sleeping bags and tents all over New York City,” he later added.

In the neighboring Carl Schurz Park, protesters set up tents, strung tarps, and slept on sleeping bags as a symbolic warning of the spike in street homelessness they believe the limits will bring. When asked about this possibility, New York City Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol said, “It’s a concern. I think we also have to face reality. There’s only so much we can do."

At the demonstration on Thursday, speakers urged the city to transition more shelter residents into long-term housing. This included making migrants eligible for the housing voucher program, known as CityFHEPS, and turning empty offices and apartments into affordable housing.

Last weekend, Floyd Bennett Field opened to migrants, but many rejected the housing as it was deemed too remote and the migrants did not want to be housed in a tent city.

Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said the administration’s legal posture and policies on migrants "go against our city's legacy of helping those in need and welcoming immigrants from all walks of life."

New York City currently shelters over 65,000 migrants.