Theodore Long, the Senior Vice President of Ambulatory Care and Population Health at New York City Health + Hospitals.
Photo by Dean Moses
The Randall’s Island Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center (HERRC) — the city’s largest such facility to date — opened on Sunday as Adams administration officials continue to plead for federal assistance to aid with the migrant crisis.
The “tent city” erected on Randall’s Island Soccer Field 83 encompasses three large, reinforced canopies dedicated exclusively to housing sleeping quarters. The scene of each cot filed against one another inside of room after room is not only striking to the eye, but also a stark reality, according to Theodore Long, the Senior Vice President of Ambulatory Care and Population Health at New York City Health + Hospitals.
Long states that the facility is still being expanded despite opening to house new arrivals and is expected to care for some 3,000 migrants with the cost of the HERRC being footed by the state. All this comes as the city still currently bears the burden of some 58,000 asylum seekers in “tent cities,” hotels, and shelters.
“With the numbers of asylum seekers crossing our border into our country each day, we’re seeing the numbers go down. However, in New York City, we’re seeing the number of asylum seekers every day go up. So because of that, this facility could be full fairly soon,” Long explained. “I don’t know exactly when but what I do know is that we need to be constructing facilities like this, which is why today is so important.”
Long also revealed that things are so dire that the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center’s “tent city,” which opened on Aug. 15, is already half filled as City Hall numbers suggest over 100,000 migrants have passed through NYC since Spring 2022.
Manuel Castro, commissioner of immigrant affairs, told amNewYork Metro that he has been to the southern border, he has spoken with those staying in…
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