New York City will now begin housing migrants in houses of worship — the city’s latest attempt to manage the more than 72,000 people who’ve flowed into the city since last spring.
Standing in the City Hall rotunda flanked by dozens of faith leaders, Mayor Adams announced the creation of the faith-based shelter program Monday morning and hinted that his next step would be enlisting private residents to house migrants in their homes.
“This is an opportunity built on a crisis,” the mayor said of his new faith-based initiative. “We were in the process for months of sitting down with our faith leaders trying to navigate many of the complexities that are associated with how to use spaces as a place for respite centers and places that people can sleep — and at the same time maintain the worshiping services.”
Under the plan, the non-profit New York Disaster Interfaith Services will help as many as 50 faith-based spaces offer overnight shelter for up to 19 single adult men at each location per night. According to Adams’ spokesman Fabien Levy, this will cost the city $125 per person, per day — much less than what it costs the city to house migrants in homeless shelters or hotels.
The new initiative will also include five centers that offer migrants a place to go during the day. The city estimates that the program will host initially host nearly 1,000 asylum seekers, with the potential for further expansion.
Mayor Adams continued to bemoan what he views as insufficient help form the federal government on Monday and pointed out that the under $40 million dollars so far allocated by the feds only covers five days of migrant costs the city is now bearing.
“We want to declare a national state of emergency here in the state to get additional resources in. The federal government can do this,” he said.
“This is not sustainable. We cannot continue to sustain this.”
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