Almost no NYC migrants are accepting free plane, bus tickets after shelter evictions, data show
By Craig McCarthy, Emily Crane,
2024-03-11
Less than 2% of adult migrants per day are accepting free plane or bus tickets to leave the Big Apple once they are booted from the city’s overflowing shelter system, newly released data show.
Once there, the migrants can either reapply for taxpayer-funded temporary housing, which could see them sent to hotels upstate — or take up the offer of a free one-way bus or plane ticket.
The data, collected between Dec. 17 and March 3, show that just 15% of the migrants, on average, were able to secure another bed after trying to re-enter the shelter system at the East Village intake center after getting their 30-day eviction notice.
The city has so far coughed up $7.6 million to reticket migrants out of the Big Apple since spring 2022, a City Hall spokesperson told The Post.
The top destinations include other parts of New York state, Illinois, Texas, Florida, Colorado, Minnesota, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
It wasn’t immediately clear how much of that $7.6 million has been forked over at the East Village center. Asylum seekers can also get reticketed at other shelters, including the city’s main Roosevelt Hotel intake center. The data for the other reticketing sites were not immediately available.
City officials, however, insist that roughly 60% of the migrants who have come through the Big Apple’s shelter system since spring 2022 — about 113,000 — have already “taken the next steps in their journeys.” This includes asylum seekers who are no longer in the city’s care because they either support themselves or left using their own means.
“We’re laser-focused on using intensive case management, reticketing, and legal support to help more people move out of shelter as they desire more self-sufficient lives,” the City Hall rep told The Post.
“While we are grateful for the assistance we have received thus far from our federal partners, we need more. We need the federal government to finish the job they started by providing more asylum seekers with expedited work authorization, sending additional financial support to New York City, and implementing a comprehensive decompression and resettlement strategy.”
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Comments / 255
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Lil M
03-22
I think the Homeless should have access to the Shelters too. Fairness.
Patrice Smith
03-21
no, the African Americans build this country. on our sweat and blood. and look at how they treat us.
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