Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Year : 2, Issue : 8
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has done a U-turn on plans to convert an abandoned luxury apartment complex into a shelter for illegal migrants after the community in Harlem opposed the proposal.
Adams turned up unannounced at a community meeting in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood Thursday where locals were gathering civil to discuss rumors the building on the corner of 130th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. was quietly being prepared for immigrants, according to CBS News.
The building was first advertised as luxury housing with a swimming pool, but it has been empty for around a decade after its developers defaulted on loans, the outlet reports. It was built in 2007 and has 35 units, city records show.
It was then leased to a nonprofit that had been working with the city Department of Social Services/Homeless Services to use it as a shelter for either migrants or the city’s native homeless population, the New York Post reports.
Central Harlem, where about 44 % of residents are Black, is generally a low-income neighborhood with a 28.4% poverty rate compared to 18.0% citywide, according to the 2020 census.
It was then leased to a nonprofit that had been working with the city Department of Social Services/Homeless Services to use it as a shelter for either migrants or the city’s native homeless population, the New York Post reports.
Central Harlem, where about 44 % of residents are Black, is generally a low-income neighborhood with a 28.4% poverty rate compared to 18.0% citywide, according to the 2020 census.
A sign at the meeting said, “Millions on migrants, what about youth programs?” Adams has said the illegal migrant crisis could cost the city as much as $12 billion through 2025. At least 170,000 illegal migrants have arrived in New York since the spring of 2022.
But the mayor said that illegal migrants wouldn’t be placed inside the building and that it instead would house local homeless New Yorkers.
“I told the team, ‘Find out what’s going on here,’” Adams said. “We’re not moving folks into a brand new building when you have long-term needs in a community. That’s not going to happen.
“You will not have migrants and asylum seekers in that property.”
