Mayor Adams Announces new Round of Migrant Shelter Closures, Including one of City's Largest Facilities, after 27 Straight Weeks of Shelter Census Declines

January 10, 2025

Administration's Asylum Seeker Management Strategies and Border Policy Advocacy Have Helped Lead to Over Six Months of Shelter Census Decreases, Almost $500 Million in Savings

78 Percent of Migrants That Have Sought Care from City Have Taken Next Steps in Journeys

Between June 2024 and June 2025, Adams Administration Will Have Closed 46 Migrant Shelters

NEW YORK - New York City Mayor Eric Adams today announced that - thanks to the administration's successful asylum seeker management strategies and federal border policy changes the city advocated for that have continued to drive down the number of people in the city's care for 27 straight weeks and reduce costs by nearly $2.8 billion over three fiscal years - 13 new emergency shelters serving asylum seekers across the five boroughs, including Hall Street in Brooklyn, one of the city's largest facilities that currently houses approximately 3,500 migrants, are slated to close by June 2025. The new closures in oversaturated areas of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens will result in a capacity reduction of approximately 10,000 beds for migrants in the coming months. Last month, Mayor Adams announced 25 additionalsites that would be closing by March 2025, included the Floyd Bennet Field and Randall's Island Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers. By June 2025, the administration will have closed over 20 percent of emergency sites opened in response to the asylum seeker crisis.

"The policies we implemented, and the tremendous work of the dedicated public servants who execute our mission, show how our administration continues to creatively and effectively manage an unprecedented crisis," said Mayor Adams. "The additional closures we are announcing today, provides yet another example of our continued progress and the success of our humanitarian efforts to care for everyone throughout our system. Our intensive and smart efforts have helped more than 178,000 asylum seekers - 78 percent of the migrants who have ever been in our care - take the next steps on their journeys towards pursuing the American Dream. We will continue to do everything we can to help migrants become self-sufficient, while finding more opportunities to save taxpayer money and turn the page on this unprecedented humanitarian crisis."

"The significant progress we've made since the height of our response is incredible and the work of all our agency and community partners is stamped into the DNA of all of the successes we have had to date," said Mayor's Office of Asylum Seeker Operations Executive Director Molly Schaeffer. "With these successes, though, we recognize that we must continue to support the progress of all our new arrivals - those currently in our care, and those who continue to arrive. The effective closure of facilities as our progress dictates, as well as assuring that those who remain in our care are treated with care and compassion, remains the standard that we strive for in the way we manage a continually fluid and complex process."
Thanks to Mayor Adams' successful advocacy for federal executive orders relating to border policies by the Biden-Harris administration, which have significantly reduced the rate at which asylum seekers are arriving in New York City and seeking care; the Adams administration's tireless efforts to expand work authorization and pathways, leading to more than 75 percent of adults eligible for work authorization receiving or applying for it in our system; and the administration's successful asylum seeker management strategies - including reticketing, case management, and 30- and 60-day notices - the number of asylum seekers in city shelters has decreased for 27 straight weeks and is now at its lowest point in over 18 months. There are currently under 51,000 migrants receiving city shelter services, down from a high of over 69,000 in January of 2024 and out of more than 229,000 that have arrived in New York City seeking city services since the spring of 2022.

In addition to today's closures, the city will open a smaller brick-and-mortar congregate facility on Bruckner Boulevard in the Bronx dedicated to single adult male residents transferred from the tent-based emergency site at Randall's Island. The city anticipates partnering with local nonprofits that provide services to migrants in an effort to help them take the next steps in their journeys towards self-sufficiency. This overall decrease in the number of individuals in shelters will allow the city to continue to right size populations in neighborhoods that previously held a significantly larger number of shelters and migrants during the emergency phase of the city's response.

Building off of the previously announced schedule of closures, the city will shutter the following 10 facilities that have already been finalized, with the closure of three additional facilities to be finalized in the coming days:

• BK Way, Brooklyn
• Hall Street Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center, Brooklyn
• Holiday Inn Express, Brooklyn
• The VYBE BK, Brooklyn
• 99 Washington Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center, Manhattan
• The Stewart Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center, Manhattan
• The Watson Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center, Manhattan
• Hotel Nedia, Queens
• Holiday Inn/Staten Island Inn, Staten Island
• Ramada, Yonkers

Since the first buses of asylum seekers arrived in the five boroughs in 2022, New York City has continued to focus on building the structures needed to help migrants take their next steps towards self-sufficiency. The city's Asylum Application Help Center- a first-in-the-nation entity - has helped complete almost 95,000 applications for work authorization, temporary protected status, and asylum. The work of the administration's Small Business Services office and workforce development teams have secured hundreds of job opportunities for current and former asylum seekers in the city's care, and the administration's case management and resettlement teams - in conjunction with teams across multiple city agencies - continue to find creative ways to assist recent arrivals through direct outreach, resource fairs attended, and onsite English as a Second Language courses at shelters, to name a few examples.

Over 75 percent of eligible adults in the city's care either have or have applied for work authorization thanks to the administration's efforts. The city has also purchased more than 53,200 tickets to help migrants reach their preferred destinations and help reduce long-term costs for New York City taxpayers. Additionally, staff have conducted over 781,000 case management sessions with migrants dedicated to helping them identify self-sufficient pathways out of city shelter, in addition to implementing the city's 30- and 60-day notice policies.

As a result, more than 178,000 migrants who requested services from the city in the last three years have taken the next steps in their journeys towards self-sufficiency. Since intensive case management services began in October 2023, 40 percent more families with children in humanitarian relief centers each week have taken their next steps. Additionally, Mayor Adams successfully reduced the city's asylum seeker spending over Fiscal Years 2024 through Fiscal Year 2026 by nearly $2.8 billion.

"We're very pleased to learn that another migrant shelter in our community will close in the coming months," said United States Congressmember Nicole Malliotakis. "The Holiday Inn shelter in Travis has been a nuisance to the community with a number of quality of life issues, including panhandling, prostitution and car break-ins in the surrounding neighborhood. After multiple meetings with the Mayor's Office, we're pleased that they've listened to the concerns raised by myself and Councilman Carr and have agreed to take action to begin closing these facilities down. This is another step in the right direction, but we won't stop fighting until every one of these shelters draining our tax dollars and impacting our neighborhoods is shuttered." 

"We have a legal and moral obligation to ensure every New Yorker has a safe and warm place to rest their head at night," said New York State Attorney General Letitia James. "But the conditions at the Hall Street shelter have not been working for its residents or the broader community. I thank City Hall for making the tough decision to close the shelter while ensuring that all the residents have another place to stay."

"We're relieved that the surge in new arrivals into our city these last few years has crested and that any strain placed on city services has lessened," said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. "To our government and community partners who stepped up to ensure that our newest neighbors, including thousands of young families fleeing untenable situations in their home nations, had the resources they needed upon arrival in New York City, we are eternally grateful. But make no mistake that as a new, hostile federal administration takes office later this month, Queens will continue to do whatever it can to support our immigrant brothers and sisters and defend our historically marginalized communities from any threat that may potentially come their way. That's what being a New Yorker means at the end of the day."

"We thank the mayor for bringing this to closure," said Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella. "This is a step in the right direction for Staten Island. For the sake of the quality of life for all our residents, the remainder of the shelters need to be closed, as well."

"This is great news for the people of Travis who have been living with the consequences of having three emergency shelters in their neighborhood," said New York City Councilmember David Carr. "I have been fighting for this area alongside my colleagues since 2022, and given they were the first area of Staten Island to have one, it makes sense that they'd be the first have an announced closure with hopefully more to come. I thank the mayor for starting this process."

"Following significant advocacy from me and my constituents in Clinton Hill, as well as partners like the New York Immigration Coalition, I applaud the effort to finally close the Hall Street HERRC and end this separate and unequal shelter system for newly arrived asylum seekers," said New York City Councilmember Crystal Hudson. "I'm glad there's a plan to responsibly transition existing residents to a new location. While this happens, we must also ensure the rich communities our diverse immigrant populations have established are maintained and that they can continue to have every single resource they need to thrive in their new home."

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