Mayor Eric Adams insisted Tuesday that an incident where dozens of people, believed to be migrants, were discovered living in a cramped Queens storefront had nothing to do with his policies to move newcomers out of shelters.
The incident took place Monday afternoon, when inspectors with the FDNY and city Department of Buildings (DOB) found more than 70 individuals residing on the first floor and in the basement of an illegally converted South Richmond Hill building, according to city officials. Inspectors came to the property following a 311 complaint regarding e-bikes in the backyard, officials said.
Adams, during his weekly Tuesday press conference, insisted that if the individuals staying in the storefront were migrants, they did not end up there as a result of his administration’s policies to move new arrivals out of city shelters. Those policies include 30- and 60-day limits on migrant stays in shelters for single adults and families respectively.
City Council Member Shahana Hanif (D-Brooklyn), a frequent critic of the mayor’s migrant policies, posted on the social media platform X that the incident was a “direct consequence” of the 30-day rule. The shelter limits have been widely panned by progressive pols, with Hanif introducing a bill in the council to outlaw them and two state lawmakers rolling out legislation on the state level to do the same.
But the mayor claimed that the incident was an aberration, noting that roughly 115,000 of the over 180,000 migrants who have passed through the city’s shelter system since last year have left without getting entangled in similar situations.
“One thing we know for sure, there was not [115,000] in that store,” the mayor told reporters. “We have been successful in our 30-day program….and so, when you move that large volume of people, are there going to be a small number where somebody does something inappropriate? Yes.”
Adams added the city must make it clear to migrants found to be living in unsafe conditions, like those found in Queens, that there are resources available to them. And that is what happened in this case, he said, with city officials referring the individuals to shelters.
Furthermore, the mayor said his office had to enact the shelter time limits in order to bring down the mounting population in the system and help avoid a looming budget crisis.
“What we could not do with 64,000 long-term New Yorkers in our care, we could not sit back and allow 180,000 more in our care,” Adams said, referring to how many more migrants would be in shelter if he had not implemented the time limits.
When asked by a reporter if there is a moment when city officials prepare migrants for leaving shelter, Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom said it is an ongoing conversation from when migrants are given shelter stay limit notices to when they must leave.
“There’s many moments during that 60-day period of time, or during that 30-day period of time, where we’re having constant conversations,” she said.
