New York Post: Sobering video shows migrants sleeping on cardboard outside iconic NYC hotel as shelter hits capacity
By JACK MORPHET, ISABEL KEANE
July 31, 2023 9:47 AM
Sobering video shows dozens of migrants sleeping on cardboard outside the iconic Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Monday morning — as the makeshift processing center for asylum seekers hit capacity this weekend.
The slumbering newly arrived migrants could be seen filling the sidewalks surrounding the historic hotel at 45th Street and Vanderbilt Avenue, stretching from the hotel door up East 47th Street.
The group slept shoulder-to-shoulder across three full blocks while waiting to be processed at the site, which also houses migrant families, as NYPD officers monitored the situation.
Heartbreaking images showed crowd-control ropes separating the migrants from passersby, as those waiting for access to proper shelter huddled under blankets with their belongings alongside them.
“We’re all sleeping on the street,” said Abderahim Mahamat Saleh, a 36-year-old married dad of three from the Central African Republic, to The Post — adding he hasn’t been able to find a bed anywhere since he arrived in the Big Apple eight days ago.
He said he has been waiting outside the Roosevelt now for two days after staff gave him a “general referral form” and placed him in the queue along with dozens of other migrants.
“We don’t have blankets or pillows. They brought in vans for some people to sleep in, but there’s not enough space in the vans,” explained the migrant, who said he left behind his family to escape his country’s militia after they broke two of his ribs and collarbone.
Saleh said he isn’t sure his long journey across the US border by way of eight countries — Chad, Turkey, Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico — was worth it. Before arriving in the city July 23, he spent time in Louisville, KY — where he was homeless and had only two meals a week, he said.
“I came to New York City because I thought there would be help,” Saleh said. “I wish I didn’t come to New York.”
Luckier groups of migrants were seen sleeping inside white “dollar vans” parked outside the hotel over the weekend after they were turned away from the site because of overwhelming numbers.
“That’s why we need this crisis to be managed by the president,” said Democratic state Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar of Queens when asked about migrants sleeping outside the hotel.
“Immigration is federally controlled. We need the president to implement common-sense fixes on our overwhelmed system,” said Rajkumar, who held a rally with dozens of politicians, many Democrats, in City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan early Monday afternoon.
Frustrated City Council majority leader Keith Powers (D-Manhattan), citing “the situation” at the Roosevelt in a tweet over the weekend, wrote, “Right now, it’s essential that we get on top of the inhumane & concerning conditions immediately as we figure out how to change intake,”
The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless threatened legal action if the situation continues to worsen.
“There is no dispute that the City has a legal obligation to find an appropriate placement for anyone in need of shelter in a timely fashion,” the organizations said in a joint statement.
“Denying new arrivals placement and forcing people to languish on local streets is cruel and runs afoul of a range of court orders and local laws.
“The multiple stories and photos that have circulated on social media and reports from our clients who are stuck without shelter is both heartbreaking and maddening, and should this continue, we will have no choice but to file litigation to enforce the law,” they said.
The 1,000-room Roosevelt Hotel, located near Grand Central Terminal, had been closed for nearly three years given the COVID pandemic. It then became the city’s main “asylum seeker arrival center” earlier this year.
The recent flood of migrants has given the Big Apple’s hotel industry a post-COVID comeback, as more than 100 hotels are contracting with Mayor Eric Adams’ administration to fill up more 10,000 rooms with asylum seekers.
In addition to the Roosevelt, the Holiday Inn in Manhattan’s Financial District has been converted to a migrant shelter, while other hotels have been contracted to provide rooms for migrants on a month-to-month basis, industry insiders told The Post.
The city entered into an overall $275 million contract with the Hotel Association of New York City earlier this year that set aside 5,000 hotel rooms for migrants as a staggering 93,200 have arrived in the Big Apple since spring 2022 — with more than 2,500 still pouring in weekly.
Adams issued yet another anguished plea for federal help last week, saying, “We have stepped up and led the nation, but this national crisis should not fall on cities alone to navigate.
“We need a national solution here,” said the mayor, who has ripped fellow Democrat President Biden for not doing his part to help the dire situation.
Last week, 54 other city Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Biden urging the White House to step up to help the city with federal assistance and better control the influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border.
Instead, team Biden offered a federal liaison — and no additional funds. The dismissive response drew backlash from local lawmakers, who complained the president was ignoring the city’s plight.
The hotel’s overflow comes as state Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar (D-Queens) is set to hold a rally Monday to urge Biden to take more control of the recent influx of migrants entering the Big Apple.
Local leaders plan to call on Biden to declare a state of emergency, expedite work authorization to allow asylum seekers to get jobs faster, better control the situation at the US-Mexico border and provide additional funding and resources to New York City.
The center set up at the Roosevelt, the first of its kind across the five boroughs, provides migrants access to legal, medical and reconnection services.
There, migrants can also be placed in a shelter or humanitarian relief center if needed.