Just 5 migrants are living in Eric Adams’ NYC tent city that’s set to house 500
If you build it, they may not come!
Fewer than half a dozen migrants moved into Mayor Eric Adams’s controversial tent city during its first two days of operation — even though it’s set up to house at least 500.
Three men were dropped off Wednesday morning at the sprawling complex on Randall’s Island and were given COVID-19 tests in a section of one tent that’s being used to process new arrivals.
Those three additions pushed the total number that The Post has seen brought there to just five.
A worker confirmed the paltry number of residents, saying, “There’s just five so far.”
Adams ordered the three giant, white tents erected last month, one day before warning that the surge of migrants — which officially comprised more than 21,000 people as of Wednesday — could soon reach 75,000.
The complex was initially placed at the Orchard Beach parking lot in The Bronx but was relocated before construction was complete due to heavy rains that flooded the site.
On Tuesday, city Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol revealed a partial price tag for the project, saying, “It cost about $325,000 to demobilize from Orchard Beach and another $325,000 to set up this facility.”
“The rest of the costs we’re still analyzing — we don’t know how many people we will be caring for and a lot of the costs are variable, so many of those ongoing costs we’re now figuring out,” he added.
The Orchard Beach site, which was being built to accommodate 1,000 people, was expected to cost $15 million a month to operate, a source familiar with the matter previously told The Post.
The tent city has come under fire from some homeless New Yorkers for its plush amenities, which include a lounge with couches, flat-screen TVs, Xbox video game consoles, ping pong and foosball tables, and popcorn machines.
During an unrelated news conference in Brooklyn on Thursday afternoon, Adams said that “this is not about comparing those who need assistance and care from the city” but didn’t address the tent city’s meager population.
A mayoral spokesperson later told The Post: “Our goal was always to stem the flow of buses that politicians were sending with no notice or coordination and build a place where we can help people get to their final desired destination with care and dignity.”
“Our goal was never to fill an entire humanitarian emergency response and relief center, or multiple centers,” the spokesperson added.