A Bushwick “respite center” serving over 300 adult male asylum seekers went without working showers for weeks, before the scarcity was addressed.
An Upper West Side shelter housing migrant families went without baby formula and wipes for two weeks, until a councilmember intervened.
Migrants staying at a shelter in Queens complain of enduring the summer heat without air conditioning, and being threatened with retaliation for speaking out.
These are just some of the reported issues — along with complaints of insufficient bathroom facilities, undercooked meals and acts of intimidation by facility staff — that have confounded the city’s shelter system for newly arrived migrants in recent weeks.
While there is no reliable accounting of the problems citywide, housing and immigrant rights advocates, joined by some city councilmembers, tell Gothamist the conditions at some sites are deplorable, the city’s offerings are becoming more uneven, and it has become increasingly difficult to ensure the migrants’ basic needs are met.
“There are so many fires going on,” said Michael Whitesides, staffer to Councilmember Shahana Hanif, who chairs the Council’s immigration committee. “Until someone raises a really big red flag…It adds to the ever-growing list of problems.”
Conditions have become so bad, one aid worker charged that the city has intentionally fallen short, to discourage migrants from staying in New York – or even coming in the first place.
“They are horrific conditions, very inhumane,” said Power Malu from the aid group Artists Athletes Activists. Migrants are “made to feel uncomfortable.” He later added: “I think that (the poor treatment) started in the last couple of months have been done purposely.”
Spokespeople for City Hall did not immediately respond to requests for comment or answer an emailed list of questions about specific concerns raised by migrants and immigration advocates.
In the past, including during City Council oversight…
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