Rep. Ritchie Torres Blasts NYC for Using Bronx as ‘dumping ground’ Over New 2,200-Bed Migrant Shelter; NYC to Open 2,200-Bed Migrant Shelter for Single Men Near Open-Air Drug Market

Rep. Ritchie Torres blasts NYC for using Bronx as ‘dumping ground’ over new 2,200-bed migrant shelter:

Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) called on the city to stop treating his home borough like “a dumping ground” for shelters, as the Adams administration prepares to move thousands of migrant men to the neighborhood.

“For far too long, the Bronx has been relegated to the status of a second-class borough in New York City and a second-class county in New York State,” the congressman wrote in a letter addressed to Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams this week.

The decision by city officials to choose the borough as the location for a new, 2,200-bed migrant shelter “is typical of the second-class treatment that the Bronx has historically been given,” Torres fumed in the missive, obtained by The Post.

The city is set to convert a South Bronx storage facility into a temporary shelter for migrant men from the troubled Randall’s Island tent city, which is set to close next month.

Residents and workers near the 825 E. 141st St. building were outraged, telling The Post this week that their neighborhood has become “oversaturated” with shelters and that city officials didn’t warn them about the new one coming to their neighborhood.

“Neither the State nor the City would ever think of siting a 2,200-bed men’s migrant shelter in the wealthiest neighborhoods — these controversial sitings seem to be reserved only for the poorest communities in places like the Bronx,” Torres wrote in the letter, sent to Adams and Hochul on Thursday afternoon.

The city will pay between $250,000 and $340,000 to retrofit the building after approving an emergency contract that did not go through the standard bidding process, public records show.

Torres noted the “staggering cost” of sheltering asylum seekers as he questioned how much the state and city have put toward permanently housing New Yorkers displaced by a massive blaze that ripped through an apartment block in the area in January.

The pol also pointed to the persistent scourge of drugs gripping the commercial area between Melrose and Mott Haven that encompasses Roberto Clemente Plaza known as “The Hub” — asking where the state and city’s priorities lie.

“The State and the City have spent more resources on siting migrant shelters in the Bronx than either has on permanently housing the displaced families of 2910 Wallace Avenue or on permanently dismantling the open-air drug market in the Hub,” he said in the letter. —>READ MORE HERE

NYC to Open 2,200-Bed Migrant Shelter for Single Men Near Open-Air Drug Market:

New York City will open a new migrant shelter capable of housing up to 2,200 single men in the Bronx next month, despite city officials recently claiming a slowing migrant crisis had allowed them to shut down other shelters in the city.

On Friday, Democratic mayor Eric Adams announced plans to open the new Bronx facility and close 13 emergency migrant shelters by June. The move came one month after Adams announced the closure of 25 other shelters, including those at Floyd Bennett Field and Randall’s Island, which will be closed by March.

The new shelter will cost the Democrat-run sanctuary city between $250,000 and $340,000 to retrofit the building for its incoming occupants after approving an emergency contract, the New York Post reported. The project is expected to house the migrant men displaced from the Randall’s Island location.

More than 229,000 migrants have entered New York City seeking shelter since the spring of 2022. But the number of migrants in the city’s shelter system has declined for 27 consecutive weeks and is at its lowest point in over 18 months, according to Adams.

Less than 51,000 migrants currently receive shelter services, down from a high of more than 69,000 migrants in January 2024.

“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,” Adams said on Friday. “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.” —>READ MORE HERE

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