Migrant adults who still need a place to stay after their 30 days in New York City’s shelter system expire are now being sent to a former school in the East Village to reapply for housing — a change that’s leading hundreds of people to wait hours in the cold, hoping for a new placement.
On Monday, the line outside the migrant processing center at St. Brigid School stretched down 7th Street and Avenue B. Migrants carrying duffle bags, backpacks and bags of their belongings braced against freezing temperatures behind police barricades. Some wore only hoodies and no gloves.
“You don’t have human rights,” said Mark Miller, an immigrant from Russia who arrived in the city in May and was waiting in line for a new shelter bed. “You’re nobody, you’re not American homeless, you’re immigrant homeless.”
“It’s different, believe me,” Miller added. “I feel it, and all these people feel it the same.”
Earlier this week, the city began directing migrants who have received 30-day eviction notices and still need a shelter bed to St. Brigid to reapply for temporary housing. The site, run by the New York City emergency management agency, opened last month as a “reticketing” center for migrants who wanted a plane ticket out of the city.
City officials say the St. Brigid site will also help adult migrants who have been kicked out of shelter to find a new bed.
“As a way to streamline, we said if you need new placement, go to St. Brigid,” City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak said. “We’re adding staffing there now.”
The long lines outside of St. Brigid, a shuttered Catholic school, on Monday evening came as the city issued a code blue weather emergency, which eases shelter restrictions when temperatures take a dip.
NYCEM officials said some migrants who were in the line at St. Brigid on Monday night were assigned temporary cots in emergency facilities that operate during a code blue, while others were sent to a Bronx waiting room. Many in the latter group slept on chairs…
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