A devastating migrant crisis has reached an alarming level in New York City as asylum seekers are forced to sleep on the city’s streets. Midtown Manhattan’s Roosevelt Hotel now functions as a migrant processing center for city shelters, with dozens of people waiting for services.
For over a year, record numbers of asylum seekers have been pouring into New York City from around the globe, nearly doubling the city’s homeless population in the process. But now the system has broken down. Mayor Eric Adams warned of a potential downfall if the migration crisis is not addressed, saying, “From this moment on, it’s downhill. There is no more room”. There are currently 107,900 people in 194 municipal shelters and hotels, 56,200 of whom are asylum seekers.
However, even as Mayor Adams works to make more room, he has given priority to families with young children for free housing, and limited the maximum stay for single men to sixty days.
The Inadequate aid from Federal and state governments have left the city struggling to cover the costs of helping the asylum seekers. Even with the hundreds of millions of dollars that the city has allocated to help immigrants, there is not enough money to cover the costs of properly caring for this growing population.
Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom maintains that the situation is unsustainable. In the past week alone, 2,300 more asylum seekers have entered the system, making a strain on the already limited resources that New York City has to offer.
With the precarious situation in New York City continuing to worsen, the Biden administration must make the necessary changes to address the needs of asylum seekers and prevent further chaos. It’s a monumental task, but without significant improvements, the already precarious situation is at risk of spiraling out of control.
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