What Will Happen to the People? Shelters in New York had already reached capacity. Attempts by officials to find accommodations for asylum seekers are in a panic.
Three teams made up of the 200 employees of the New York City Office of Emergency Management are on standby at all times to respond to any type of calamity that might strike the city without warning, including terrorist attacks, devastating storms, and building collapses. Zach Iscol, the city's director of emergency management, was tucking his kids into bed one evening earlier this month when his phone rang. A new and unexpected busload of asylum seekers had arrived at the Port Authority, according to a message from one of the on-call personnel.
Since May 11 and the termination of Title 42, the government regulation that barred asylum seekers while COVID was still regarded as a public health emergency, busloads of migrants have begun coming. This trend peaked after May 11 and the termination of Title 42.
The hundreds of refugees arriving every day were causing New York, the only American city with a right-to-shelter statute that ensures a bed for a night to anybody who needs one, to struggle to find housing.
Running Out Of Options
Members of the Adams administration had been scrambling to improvise alternatives since the city's existing, inadequate, and woefully underfunded shelter system had long since been exhausted by both migrants and a record number of native New Yorkers, including Orchard Beach, a shuttered Rikers Island prison, and when those too caused controversy, half-empty hotels, or any building with empty square footage, such as a midtown office building.
However, they had run out of options at this point. Even though there were no more structures or beds, people continued to arrive, putting the shelter system in jeopardy.
Furthermore, the city was only permitted to use its own properties; neither those owned by the federal or state governments nor those leased by private parties were available.
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