New York City’s Central Park and Prospect Park are being considered by city officials as part of the sanctuary city’s plan to house migrants.
According to Bloomberg, over 95,000 migrants have arrived in New York City over the last 15 months. The recent surge in migration resulted in Anne Williams-Isom, deputy mayor for Health and Human Services declaring “everything is on the table,” during a Wednesday press conference when she was asked about the potential for migrants to be housed in the city’s parks.
Williams-Isom noted that Central Park and Prospect Park are two of roughly 3,000 potential migrant housing locations the city is currently considering.
The Gothamist reported that New York City is discussing the possibility of putting up tents in both Central Park and Prospect Park, as well as on Randall’s Island. Earlier this year, CNN obtained a memo from city officials that included the campuses of York College and Medgar Evers College, a YMCA in Park Slope, Brooklyn, the parking lot at Citi Field, and a recreational center on Staten Island as potential shelter locations for migrants and asylum seekers.
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According to Bloomberg, large numbers of migrants were observed congregating and sleeping on sidewalks near the Roosevelt Hotel Tuesday night.
While New York City Mayor Eric Adams has criticized the Biden administration for not providing assistance to the city in response to the surge in migration, Williams-Isom claimed the city would not “use any people to do a stunt” in order to convince the federal government to provide aid to the city, denying rumors that the city was allowing people to sleep on the streets in order to put pressure on the Biden administration to act.
Bloomberg reported that Adams and other New York officials met with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas last week to discuss the surge in migration.
New York City’s shelter system reportedly housed 107,900 people according to records posted on July 30. Bloomberg reported that the number of people in the city’s shelter system is more than twice the number that were in the system since the beginning of last year. Of the 107,900 people in the shelter system, roughly 56,600 are believed to be migrants.
