New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan on Friday to provide temporary upstate housing for asylum seekers already in the city’s care.
The program, for 300 single adult male asylum seekers, will last up to four months.
It will launch with two hotels in Orange Lake and Orangeburg, with potential for expansion.
Asylum seekers will receive the same city-funded services available at emergency humanitarian response and relief centers.
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Hotel staff will connect residents with community organizations and faith groups.
New York Mayor Eric Adams attends the 2023 Literacy Partners Gala at Cipriani South Street on May 1, 2023 in New York City. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Literacy Partners)
Now the city is conducting outreach to asylum seekers already living in shelters and humanitarian centers ahead of hotels opening in the coming weeks. Transfers to cities will be voluntary.
The mayor’s office said the hotels will help free up additional space in New York for the hundreds of asylum seekers who continue to arrive daily in the five boroughs, noting that Title 42 is lifted and that there should be an even larger influx of arrivals after May 11.
Since last spring, more than 60,800 asylum seekers have passed through New York and there are currently more than 37,500 asylum seekers in the city’s care.
A bus carrying asylum seekers arrives at Port Authority on May 3, 2023 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
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In addition, since the start of the humanitarian crisis, the city has opened 122 hotels as emergency shelters and eight as humanitarian aid centres.
Adams, in a statement, again called for state and federal assistance, including financial assistance, a national decompression strategy, expedited work authorization and real immigration reform.
New York Mayor Eric Adams speaks to family members of fallen NYPD officers during the NYPD Memorial Day ceremony where new names were added to the memorial wall in the headquarters lobby. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News via Getty Images)
“Despite calling on the federal government for a National Decompression Strategy since last year, and for a Statewide Decompression Strategy, New York City has been left without the support needed to manage this crisis. With a leadership vacuum, we are now forced to undertake our own decompression strategy,” Adams said in a statement.
He said the program would help people build a stable life in New York.
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“New York City continues to step up and manage this crisis, and this new program is an extension of our compassionate response, but these actions don’t mean we still don’t need urgent action, including a national decompression strategy, financial resources, a fast-track work permit, and meaningful congressional immigration reform,” Adams added.
The mayor has previously come under fire for the move, with Republican officials saying the area lacks needed services for asylum seekers and migrant advocates calling it a “temporary solution”.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.