New York Mayor Eric Adams announced on the imposition of a state of emergency in the city in connection with the migration crisis: in recent months, so many migrants have arrived in the city, hoping to receive asylum in the United States, that the city’s housing system cannot cope. According to the mayor, $1 billion will be spent to resolve the crisis in the current fiscal year.
Since April, more than 17,000 migrants (mostly from South America) have arrived in New York to seek asylum in the United States, the mayor said. For their accommodation, places were provided in 42 shelters for the homeless. And given that there are more than 44,000 homeless people in New York, the total number of people in need of accommodation in shelters has exceeded 61,000, of which almost 20,000 are children. According to Mr. Adams, this is “a record number in the history of the city’s shelter system.” According to his estimates, if migrants continue to arrive at the same pace, then next year the number of people in need of accommodation in shelters will exceed 100 thousand. The city authorities have already opened a coordination center for asylum seekers, where they are provided with legal and psychological assistance, provide them with items necessary, organize the necessary treatment, arrange children in schools, and so on. Migrants are now being settled in hotels and hostels, and a large humanitarian aid center will be opened in the coming weeks, which will be able to accommodate several hundred more people.
Meanwhile, the mayor warned that the city was already at the limit of its capacity, both in terms of accommodating migrants and in terms of the financial side of the issue. In this regard, he called for additional funds for emergency federal and state assistance to New York, and also appealed to residents of the city to provide housing for migrants and the homeless where possible. “As we did following the events of September 11, 2001 and following Hurricane Sandy, we will stand together for good in this period of unprecedented crisis,” said Mayor Eric Adams.