City officials cleared a crowd of more than 100 migrants from a Midtown sidewalk on Thursday morning — days after Mayor Eric Adams said there was no space to house the new arrivals.
The migrants had been sleeping on the sidewalks overnight outside the city’s intake center at the Roosevelt Hotel as they waited to be placed in scarce shelter beds. Images of the scene showing more than 150 people corralled within metal barricades received national attention this week.
The sight of migrants huddled in one of Manhattan’s most trafficked areas represented a new extreme in the city’s migrant crisis. But the crowd suddenly cleared Wednesday night into Thursday morning, according to Power Malu, head of Artists Athletes Activists, a community group that regularly distributes food to people waiting in line.
MTA buses arrived on Wednesday night to transport those waiting on the sidewalks to city shelters, Malu said.
“I don’t know how, from one minute to the next, all of a sudden they found beds,” Malu said, adding that he was outside the hotel until 3:30 a.m. on Thursday.
Around 10 a.m., the sidewalks on East 45th and East 46th streets where migrants had previously been waiting were nearly empty. A handful of migrants remained on the blocks, along with advocates distributing sandwiches and water.
Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for the mayor, maintained that the city had still run out of shelter space for adult migrants. Children and families are prioritized and found beds every night, he added.
“We are doing our best to offer placements whenever we have space available, have two additional humanitarian relief centers scheduled to come online in the coming weeks to serve this population, and are eternally grateful for our partnership with faith-based organizations who are offering some asylum-seekers a place to rest their heads whenever possible,” Levy said.
City officials said some of those faith-based organizations were able to take in migrants outside of the…
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