Mayor Eric Adams says asylum seeker crisis in NYC is so dire, he's looking for shelter space outside
NEW YORK -- Mayor Eric Adams made a stunning announcement Tuesday on the city's asylum seeker crisis housing crunch.
He said it is so severe he's actively planning for the day migrants will have to sleep outside.
The mayor did not utter the words "asylum seekers will be sleeping in Central Park," but because the city has had to close a number of shelters in recent weeks because they did not meet the fire code, he said he's now looking for large outdoor spaces where asylum seekers can live.
"I don't know how to get this any clearer. When you are out of room that means you are out of room," Adams said.
For weeks now, the Adams administration has struggled to find space for the thousands of asylum seekers who continue to arrive in the city, doing everything from limiting the amount of time they can stay in a shelter to sending families with children to a semi-congregate shelter at Floyd Bennett Field.
Now, he says, even those measures are not enough.
"I want to be clear: the visual signs of this crisis in our city, people are going to start to see it," Adams said.
By "visual signs," the mayor means people sleeping on the street, and on Tuesday he disclosed that he has been meeting with people to figure out how to do it.
"I have to manage it in a way that we don't see what's happening in other cites, where you're seeing tent cities pop up all over the place," Adams said. "We have to sort of localize it as much as possible. We have to make sure that people have some type of restroom facilities, some type of shower. This is brand new. I've been having a series of meetings with those who manage this in other countries on how do you not deal with the sanitary issues that comes with it."
And even as he praised Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom for the work her team does every day to find indoor shelter space for the new arrivals, he admitted he's now looking for outside locations.
"We're going to have to find large spaces and try to create a controlled environment to the best of our ability," Adams said.
Asked if places like Central Park, Prospect Park and even Floyd Bennett Field are being considered, a top mayoral aid told CBS New York, "Everything is on the table."
"Outdoor spaces, whatever space we can find. You know, when you run out of space whatever space we can find, we're going to use and we're going to do it as humane as possible," Adams said.
The mayor said his goal is to do everything possible so children and families don't have to sleep on the streets.