By Daniel Katzive
The Mayor’s office announced on Monday that the city will be moving migrants into the Stratford Arms Hotel, a former SRO located at 117th West 70th Street, confirming rumors which began circulating in the neighborhood last week. The city also announced that another Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center (HERRC) would be opened at 205-207 West 85th Street.
The facilities “will serve adult families and single women,” according to a press release from the mayor’s office. “As the estimated number of asylum seekers that have arrived in the city since last spring surpasses at least 74,000, these sites will serve more than 800 individuals in 516 rooms.”
City Councilmember Gale Brewer’s office said migrants could begin moving in as soon as Monday night, but more likely on Tuesday morning.
The Stratford Arms has recently served as a residence hall for the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA), which listed the building in its 2022 housing brochure as one of two residential facilities available to its students in New York City. It was not immediately clear how the opening of the HERRC would impact students residing there. West Side Rag requests for information from AMDA went unanswered last week.
Speaking at last week’s community board meeting, Brewer addressed reports that had been circulating about the Stratford Arms and said the building also houses long-term residents from its SRO days. “We have to be very, very careful that none of the [permanent residents] are put out in any way,” she said. “These asylum seekers are pretty special, so I don’t think it will be a problem. But I’m paying attention.”
Adams is trying to house illegals wherever he can, however NYC handles the situation very differently from other cities. The RIGHT to shelter is turning out to be a major turning point. Adams is spending millions of dollars per day to house thousands. The problem is there is no end in sight. Adams is trying bail out the boat, but no one is fixing the hole.
You can thank the guy who pushed for the “Right to Shelter” law (the WSR profiled him (can’t remember his name) a short time ago) and the “open borders” crowd in DC. What a joke and travesty…
This will be a long term problem as they do not have court dates till 2030s. So we will be housing them for the next 7 years or so
Correction: NYC and to some extent NYS will be carrying these “migrants” for decades to come.
It can take several years to maybe a decade or longer before an asylum claim is finally settled, this includes appeals if original application is denied.
Even if asylum petition is denied as things stand USA cannot send Venezuelans, Cubans and some others back to their native countries because said places won’t accept them.
Face facts because it is a fact; these people and their families have effectively “immigrated” to United States. They are here and are staying, period and end of story.
This whole issue is such a blow to us all supporting these individuals! What a complete MESS!
These migrants are not “illegals”. They are asylum seekers whose cases are pending. Until their cases are resolved, they are here legally.
They crossed the border illegally. They passed through several countries available to them to settle in.
They are illegal migrants.
The border catastrophe is going to be a huge issue this election. Rightfully so.
Wow perfectly said I totally agree
Thousands of apartments designated for indigent folks sit empty right now. Adams has made no attempt to house either homeless or refugees in those units.
The push to end RTS is part of a Giuliani/Bloomberg playbook that has been tried many times beforehand. It’s transparent & will fail in court https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-elections-government/ny-thousands-nyc-supportive-housing-units-empty-migrant-crisis-20230528-docbsw5a6ffajbgeows6uv62pq-story.html
Noticed that hardly any, if at all, of the migrants are placed in hotels on the upper east side.
Why not?
City cannot force hotel owners to take migrants, homeless or any others they’ve placed recently.
Bottom line is process rolls like this: city sends out feelers asking hotels to submit bids or otherwise take on homeless, migrants, or whoever. These hotel owners now or in past are not being forced by city to do anything. Rather all have happily volunteered their properties. In return they are being paid handsomely above current rack room rates.
Stuart and Jay Podolsky owners of Bentley hotel have long and prosperous history of working with city to provide homeless shelter services. They aren’t doing this out of kindness of their hearts, but are very well rewarded financially.
Hotel Bentley is a new replacing a gas station that stood on site for decades. It’s really rather out of the way on UES and my guess is occupancy isn’t what Podolsky brothers wanted. As with other hotels in city taking in homeless provides an answer to problem of excess room capacity.
Hotel Bentley is not a new hotel. It has been there for many years, located near the Animal Medical Center. I stayed there once and it was a lovely hotel. Homeless people have stayed there in the past.
The Bentley Hotel on East 62nd Street is being used
Welcome home my beautiful new neighbors! We are happy to have you here in this great city! Take advantage of all NYC has to offer! Spend the day in Central Park, spend the night at a Broadway show, enjoy our amazing 5-Star restaurants. It’s your city now. Take what’s yours!
Get yourself a couple of cans of spay paint so you can cross out all that “give us your tired you’re poor” stuff engraved on the Statue of Liberty.
I’m the grandchild of immigrants to this country. They were fleeing periodic persecution, but their major motivation was to escape desperate, grinding poverty. They sought “the streets paved with gold”, metaphorically if not literally. Today’s migrants are no different. And, unlike many citizens, but very much like my grandparents, they take jobs no one else is willing to do. Who, exactly, do you think is cooking your food, bussing your table and cleaning the kitchens at the restaurants you patronize? Who do you think is delivering your packages? Who is cleaning your apartments? Who is minding your children and sitting with the sick and elderly who need home health aides but cannot afford aides “on the books”?
There is a massive underground economy full of undocumented workers. Without them, crops would not be harvested and our cities would grind to a halt.
A couple of generations ago, those immigrants could have been me and you. I think we should act accordingly.
No one who came to Ellis island a century ago was given free luxury accommodation, free meals, or free healthcare by the government. The comparison is a dishonest one.
Love your sense of humor.
How about your homeless vets?
Sara, I think you forgot to add the snark indicator, sc. /s
Yeah, I’m sure they can afford a Broadway show and dinner at a 5-star restaurant…
Sara, you forgot to include, “Let them eat cake.”
A lot of ‘take’ there.
I have been seeing a lot more people in the streets selling fruits and churros. Is this just the onset of summer or is this migrants. It seems like a lot more than in past years. I don’t see a market for all of this fruit but I respect their entrepreneurial spirit.
To the main topic, I don’t think these band aid solutions will work. I hope someone is thinking longer term, preferable on a broader scale than just in NYC.
I have been buying my fruit from the sidewalk vendors in memory of my grandfather, who emigrated from Eastern Europe to escape religious persecution, lived in a boarding house, learned a little basic English, and sold fruit from a wooden pushcart until he saved enough money to buy a little row house in South Philadelphia. I don’t know if today’s vendors are asylum-seekers, but their fruit is usually just fine and their prices are better than D’ag’s. Most important, they are carrying on the American tradition of hard work and entrepreneurship that will allow their children to have better lives than “the old country” offered. As America accepted my grandparents, I welcome today’s migrants and hope we can help them get a foot up on the ladder.
Beautiful sentiment! Thank you for posting.
I know it sounds harsh but the long term solution is securing the borders
Is there a place we could donate items to them if they need it- food, gift cards, clothes, baby items? Can you post ways to help them?
Is there any UWS organization set up to help the migrants learn English, so that they can be employed? I have some ESL experience and would donate some time.
Riverside Language School on West 89th does this. I am a volunteer there. They have a terrific program. However, you won’t be teaching ESL so much as just conversing w/ students. Each level has a conversation lab. I have also been a volunteer with Henry Street Settlement down on the lower east side.
How is this financially sustainable? Waiting for my already onerous property taxes, among others, to be raised, as the city coffers continue to be strained beyond belief because of the city’s insistence on being a sanctuary city.
Lol no. not at all.
For the city or the country. I love immigrants in America — they go through hell to get here in many of these cases. But they shouldn’t have to. Our system is beyond broken and everyone is worse off for it.
Why has the UWS become the dumping ground for the homeless, drug centers, and immigrant housing? Enough already. Please choose another neighborhood or borough.
As have said scores of times before in response to same or similar query. UWS or west side of Manhattan from Chelsea to Harlem has a surplus of hotels ranging from old SRO/budget to low end tourist.
Many of these hotels date from late 1800’s to early 1900’s and have gone through various incarnations ranging from rooming/boarding houses to low end tourist.
In many other parts of Manhattan these old hotels were either torn down or revamped into modern more upscale accommodations. On UWS for host of reasons plenty however still remain.
How can we help these refugees?
Am sorry if this causes offence, but these “migrants” by and large are not refugees. They voluntarily chose to make journey from their countries purely for economic migration purposes.
As with all other sorts of illegal immigration there is a huge network on FB and other media where people are telling their family and friends how “good” things are in USA, especially NYC. In short if they can get themselves here it’s all good.
https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/6/12/23757147/immigrants-asylum-seekers-work-shelter-off-the-books-economy
People are working (off the books and illegally of course, but still) and sending funds back home so their family and friends can make same trip as themselves. Thus begins a cycle of pattern “asylum” migration.
By incentivising the new comers to learn English and find employment instead of expecting endless handouts.
“Refugees” implies that they are seeking refuge from something, from persecution, from danger. That is not the case with many of these migrants, who seek a better life and better economic conditions — understandable! But let’s not confuse this group from Ukranians beset by war, or those imperiled by gangs or drug lords. It is lovely that so many want to give to help the group of immigrants. But HOW is this sustainable? At what point do we say actually, we have too many homeless people who are US citizens in the area, we are already providing substandard educations to many of our neighborhoods (witness test scores), and we are failing to care for our poorest, urban residents through adequate housing, employment, and health care. How will ADDING to the group of people who are barely making it/ not making it help anyone?
It’s interesting how everybody is concerned about the people who cross the border illegally with an asylum claim, which is probably everybody. Do NYC residents and government care as much about the homeless and their physical and mental health? We saw a lot of them on our visit last week.
You most likely saw a lot of immigrants as well but didn’t recognize them as such because — hey, they look like regular working people, and it is wrong to conflate them with the homelesss and mentally disturbed people who, of course, need help but of a different kind. Caring for one population does not mean ignoring the other. I hope you had a lovely time on your visit to our fair, if troubled, city.
I’m sure I will be crucified for this generalization, and there are plenty of exceptions, but most of the migrants are people looking for a better life. They are leaving horrible conditions and looking to work. There are way too many of them in NYC now and I have no idea how we will absorb them – I wish some could be sent to other places – it would be a win-win. But people are concerned about them because many of our ancestors were once in their shoes.
Meanwhile, a large percentage of the homeless (but far from all) are in bad shape. They need a lot of help. Many are beyond the point of help. So letting them sleep on the streets or putting them in shelters doesn’t help anyone. They are human beings. They should be treated with respect. Dumping them in these facilities is not treating them with respect. They are best served in specialized institutions. These institutions can be provided a lot more affordably outside of NYC. Most of them have no ties to NYC. Which, again, would be a win-win. But keeping them local makes some people have a purpose and feel good about themselves. Which ultimately is very selfish as they are not truly helping the people they think they are helping.
Oversaturating one area with disadvantaged populations helps no one. We need a healthy balance of diverse citizens. Think biome/gut health. Landlords use a desperately poor, traumatized and transient demographic to overwhelm the existing population which can’t absorb and lift up the displaced numbers coming into their buildings and neighborhood. They are using displaced people as instruments of disruption and displacement of the existing tenants – many on fixed budgets – while making hand over fist in rents from government and municipal agencies.
West Side Rag:
Given the use of so many Manhattan hotels for the migrant-group, would you know where City DHS is placing NYC resident families who become homeless?
For example, if families living in Manhattan become homeless and seek help, is DHS placing those families in Manhattan? Or other boroughs?
Many homeless have recently being placed at the Dexter House on W 86th Street from the city’s shelter system, in addition to displaced transient residents from fires and unlawful spaces like attic/basement conversions. The existing long-term residents, many on fixed budgets are being pushed out by these big money rentals (via the Red Cross/Homeless Services) living in the illegally deregulated rooms. The landlord is using these traumatized souls to harass existing tenants he wants out.
Please put more of these immigrants in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island where there is much more available space than overcrowded expensive Manhattan.
It seems like only yesterday rent-stabilized tenants were cruely criticized by many posters to the WSR. I emphasize “stabilized” because by being able to afford and remain in our homes we are a stabilizing presence in our neighborhoods.
As the saying goes be careful what you wish for.
Dont for get the Belnord Hotel on 87th st and 350 w 88 st. in April.
https://nypost.com/2023/04/08/uws-residents-furious-as-city-quietly-opens-2-new-emergency-shelters/
And exactly what are we doing for our existing and ever increasing homeless population on the UWS who are in desperate need of assistance as some are in dire need of mental health support and shelter. Now we are adding to the population on our streets that will make people more nervous for ourselves and families while walking around in our neighborhood night or day. Where is the comprehensive plan instead of all the bandaids !! Maybe we can crack down on all the illegal motorized, speeding bikes and scooters in this zip code going thru lights, riding on sidewalks and going in wrong direction. Then we would have 1 less thing to worry about when we go outside !!
“And Chicken Little cried, ‘The sky is falling down, the sky is falling down!'” With all its challenges, I’d still rather live on the UWS than most places on earth.
How many people are living in rooms in dangerous NYC neighborhoods, who would like to be living in a luxury, a few blocks away from Lincoln Center?
Living on the Upper West Side is liking winning the education lottery ticket for their children. Their children will be able to attend some of the best public schools in the city.
Other children born in the US attend failed schools in Bronx and Brooklyn
schools where teachers don’t even want to show up for work.
It goes to show that life is not fair. You have to make the best of it.
I found this page interesting, nay, enlightening: https://www.ilctr.org/quick-us-immigration-statistics/?gclid=CjwKCAjwyqWkBhBMEiwAp2yUFmx_VQjg6njIh4Iz_yNIl1L2xZVMpkXSdP6Uq718aCmF9MK_ixCCOBoC-vwQAvD_BwE#how-many