NYC Mayor Adams says 'everything is on the table' in migrant crisis
MIDTOWN, Manhattan (WABC) -- As migrants continue to pour into New York City at a rapid rate, Mayor Eric Adams says "everything is on the table" to mitigate the crisis.
In a single week this month, 4,000 migrants rolled into Manhattan, a rising tide of humanity that is sending the Adams Administration into retreat. Mayor Eric Adams admitted on Tuesday that he is unable to hold it back.
"When it comes down to the migrant asylum seekers, I cannot elevate the point enough that everything is on the table," Adams said.
For months, the administration has struggled to find emergency housing and the money to pay for it. More recently, they city has imposed 30 and 60-day limits.
The mayor is determined to avoid migrant tent cities on the streets and in public parks as seen in other cities.
Adams admitted that could soon be the reality in New York for single, male migrants as the city is forced to move the goalposts.
"No child and no family will sleep on the streets," he said. "That is my number one goal, preventing that from happening. I see what is happening in other cities: sleeping in precincts, sleeping on streets, tents all over the cities, I don't want that to turn into our city."
The city built a huge 500-bed shelter for families at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, while a parochial school on the Lower East Side functions as a kind of travel agency for migrants, providing free, one-way tickets out of town.
"I think one in four actually, usually take it, right? They stay overnight and then they leave the next morning," said Camille Joseph Varlack, the mayor's chief of staff.
Governor Kathy Hochul warns that state funding has limits.
"This is just a warning that we cannot continue to be paying for unlimited hotel rooms for people; that these congregant settings are the way to go," she said. "We are opening one here today at Floyd Bennett Field and we have to be thoughtful in this."
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