Controversial Randalls Island migrant shelter to close

The Randalls Island migrant shelter is closing this wintertime arsenic the fig of asylum seekers successful the city’s structure strategy has decreased, Mayor Adams announced Wednesday.

The structure volition adjacent astatine the extremity of February and the onshore instrumentality to usage arsenic diversion fields and parkland. Already, 1 of the biggest tents, which held much than 750 cots, has been taken down, according to a merchandise from the Mayor’s Office.

“We’re not retired of the woods yet,” Adams said, “but marque nary mistake, acknowledgment successful ample portion to our astute absorption strategies and palmy advocacy, we person turned the country connected this crisis.”

The arguable facility, among the largest structure sites successful the city, caught vigor some from locals with quality-of-life concerns and advocates pushing for much stableness for migrants.

“Cramming radical into congregate settings successful tents — successful locations acold distant from nationalist transportation, market stores and jobs — has been a look for nonaccomplishment since Day One. It is invited quality that the metropolis volition beryllium closing the Randalls Island HERRC,” Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said successful a statement, adding that the metropolis should likewise adjacent the family mega-shelter at Floyd Bennet Field.

Several stabbings, bloody brawls and adjacent fatal incidents person besides plagued the Randalls Island shelter, which houses much than 2,000 people. In January, a antheral was stabbed to death extracurricular the shelter. Five men were aboriginal charged. A Venezuelan mother was killed by a stray bullet extracurricular the structure successful July. And successful August, a man was stabbed successful the stomach. 

In caller months, a increasing encampment extracurricular the structure connected Randall’s Island had grown, mostly made up of radical who utilized to reside successful the structure but were fixed the footwear owed to the city’s structure enactment limits.

The Randalls Island Park Alliance spoke retired against the shelter and adjacent threatened ineligible enactment against it, arguing the spot chopped down connected important parkland space.

The fig of asylum seekers successful metropolis shelters has been falling since aboriginal summer, and is present astatine its lowest constituent successful much than a year, according to City Hall.

The politician attributed the alteration successful caller arrivals to the metropolis to measures the medication has taken to propulsion migrants retired of the structure strategy — including reticketing (giving migrants tickets to question to different locales extracurricular of New York City) and 30- and 60-day limits to structure stays.

The Biden medication has besides enactment successful spot caller restrictions connected asylum, cutting down connected radical crossing the confederate border.

Nearly 215,000 migrants person travel done New York City’s structure strategy since outpouring 2022, and astir 64,000 were successful the strategy arsenic of this August, according to data from the metropolis Comptroller’s Office.

The metropolis had antecedently opened structure for asylum seekers connected the land successful 2022, lone to shut it down wrong weeks aft it went mostly unused.