Mayor Eric Adams and his administration offered few details on Wednesday about how New York City plans to address the daily arrival of hundreds of migrants — a long-anticipated crisis that has the administration scrambling to find emergency shelter sites and pleading for help from federal and state officials.
“We’re going to look at everything,” Adams said at an unrelated morning press conference in Harlem. “And as we roll out what we’re doing, we will announce, but right now, everything.”
The lack of clarity comes amid an evolving and increasingly desperate response that has concerned some elected officials and advocates. Adams has reportedly been looking at a wide range of locations to use as makeshift shelters for newly arrived migrants, including municipal buildings, empty offices and even Rikers Island, the notorious city jail.
The mayor on Tuesday said the city was looking at a list of 20 public school gyms to use as emergency sites.
The number of migrants arriving daily has increased from around 200 to as many as 700, according to city officials. All told, there are 41,500 migrants currently under the city’s care.
The administration has so far set up 150 shelter sites, including in hotels, but is under pressure to find more locations. A plan to send migrants to hotels in suburban counties fell short after Rockland County obtained a temporary restraining order blocking the measure.
Principals at 10 schools were informed over the weekend that migrants may use their gyms as emergency shelter sites, according to the teachers’ union, which has pushed back on the use of schools.
But on Wednesday, roughly 75 migrants were unexpectedly moved from a Coney Island school. City Councilmember Justin Brannan said he was informed that the city no longer intended to use that specific gym.
During a City Hall briefing, two administration officials would not explain why the individuals were relocated and whether other school gyms were being reconsidered.
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