According to the Wall Street Journal, New York City officials could start handing out tents to arriving migrants and organizing them in campsite-style shelters in public parks (like Central Park) and other green spaces. The reporting comes as the city plans for the potential new wave of its migration crisis.
Mayor Eric Adams and others have apparently been discussing the potential encampments and searching for large outdoor spaces for them. Adams only recently warned that migrants would soon be sleeping on the streets.
“From this moment on, it’s downhill,” Adams said to reporters on Monday. “There is no more room.”
The city has already the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center pop-up sites up and running to help shelter hundreds of single adult migrants. The new plan would be more like campground sites; when asked about said plan a City Hall spokesperson said all options were on the table.
Someone briefed on the plan but not authorized to speak on it publicly told Gothamist that the city could also erect tents on Prospect Park in Brooklyn and on Randalls Island. On Tuesday, the Daily News reported that the Adams administration is eyeing putting the tents on several local soccer fields at the latter location, sparking blowback.
The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless immediately blasted the tent plan, saying handing out tents ahead of winter would be dangerous.
“People freezing to death on the streets is the exact nightmare that the Right to Shelter was designed to prevent,” the statement said, referring to the mandate that requires New York City to provide housing for anyone who wants it. “Make no mistake, when the Mayor and Governor talk about rolling back the Right to Shelter, this is what they mean: relegating desperate people – long-time New Yorkers and newcomers alike – to sleeping on sidewalks, in parks, and in other public spaces across the city, exposed to the elements.”
