Shocking new data shows hundreds of beds in the city’s shelter system were vacant as a large group of migrants slept on a Manhattan sidewalk for several nights in a row earlier this summer.
The data undermines Mayor Eric Adams’ claim that his administration could not find any shelter beds for the roughly 200 mostly male migrants, who as a result, resorted to sleeping outside Midtown’s Roosevelt Hotel. The scene in front of the Roosevelt played out between July 29th and August 3rd and some of the migrants spent all five nights on the curb.
The data compiled by the Department of Homeless Services shows there were over 700 vacant beds in the city’s traditional shelter system specifically meant for single male adults. These beds were available on each of the five nights the migrants slept in front of the Roosevelt.
An anonymous Adams administration official said Monday that the migrants did not get those available beds because the city “does not allow for overlap between asylum seekers and longtime New Yorkers experiencing homelessness in our shelter system since they are distinct populations with distinct needs.”
The official also acknowledged that the administration has not always differentiated between migrants and New Yorkers in need when it comes to the traditional shelter system.
There is also another longtime policy in place at the Department of Homeless Services generally requiring the agency to keep 5% vacancy rates across its shelter populations in order to have buffers of extra beds in the event of emergencies. However, during that five night-period when migrants slept outside the Roosevelt, the data shows that the rate reached its lowest on August 2nd, when 6.14% of all available beds for single male adults sat vacant.
Some homeless advocates and Democratic elected officials have accused the Adams administration of deliberately letting migrants sleep outside as a political tactic to prove the city needs a lot more financial and logistical help from the state and federal government.
In a City Council hearing this past Friday, Brooklyn Councilman Lincoln Restler pointed to another damning data set: the total census for adult males in the shelter system was lower by 1,500 individuals during the Roosevelt incident versus six weeks before.
“Human suffering was used as a political pawn,” Restler, a progressive, said of the Roosevelt debacle. “I agree very much that the state and federal government need to step up, but what we saw on the street of the Roosevelt Hotel was a disgrace to every single person who works for the city.”
