NYC officials consider Central Park tents in last-minute bid to house migrants as crisis continues
City Hall officials are considering using Big Apple landmarks such as the Flatiron Building and hangers at JFK International Airport to house incoming migrants if the crisis becomes even more dire.
High-ranking city officials told The Post that the sites have been part of brain-storming sessions to cope with the expiration of Title 42 on Thursday.
The officials said no decisions have been made, adding that the locations are some of many being considered.
Sources said that a team of officials from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s government in Albany as well as a team from City Hall inspected the facilities at JFK, which is controlled by the Port Authority and is one of the most congested air hubs in the country. It was unclear if they found any space at the Idlewild complex to use.
Hochul said she’s working with the mayor to find more space in the city, including on state property and is “talking to other counties that are interested in having people come.”
Meanwhile, a report published by CNN listed other eye-catching suggestions — including Manhattan’s Central Park, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and the Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens — as potential sites of emergency housing.
However, sources cautioned that no plans have been drawn up to use any public parks yet and that doing so would be an extraordinary logistical challenge. Officials would have to build tent structures and then find ways to bring in electricity and plumbing for restrooms and showers.
The owner of the Flatiron Building told The New York Times that he was contacted by city officials searching for space, though they quickly came to understand the building could not host residents in its current gutted condition.
The flurry of developments comes just days after The Post revealed that Adams’ chief of staff Camille Joseph Varlack sent a desperate plea to all city agencies on Sunday asking them to identify potential space to house migrants.
“With more asylum-seekers arriving daily, this influx has pushed our shelter system to a breaking point and we need to create emergency temporary sites,” wrote Joseph Varlack.
“We ask that city agencies conduct an internal review of any properties or spaces in your portfolio that may be available to be repurposed to house asylum-seekers as temporary shelter spaces. If there is current programming please include programming that is.”
Agencies were instructed to focus on facilities they already operate and could easily be adapted to provide shelter. They were required to turn in the list of locations they identified as possible shelter facilities by 5 p.m. on Monday.
At least one shelter is already up and running in a repurposed facility — the gymnasium inside the former police academy on 20th Street in Manhattan, which was stuffed full of cots to provide temporary emergency shelter over the weekend.
However the effort quickly came under fire from homeless advocates who accused city officials of violating court settlements that ensure basic safety measures by placing families with children alongside single adults in the gym temporarily due to space constraints in the shelter system.
The wave of arrivals has brought nearly 61,000 migrants so far to the five boroughs. More than 37,000 of them are living in city-operated or city-funded shelter facilities that’ll cost the city an estimated $4.3 billion in 2023 and 2024 alone, Adams has said.
Most of the migrants are fleeing political violence and economic instability in South and Central America, hardships they hope make them eligible for asylum.
The Department of Homeless Services is operating 126 emergency shelters — typically out of hotels — across the city; the Health and Hospitals Corporation has opened another eight barracks-style facilities to provide beds and social services for migrants.
The number of emergency shelters jumped by 14 alone during the twelve day period that spanned April 26 to May 8, city statistics show.
