Staten Island resident sues to block 300 migrants from moving into former school — over outdoor showers
A longtime Staten Island homeowner has joined local politicians in a fight to block some 300 migrants from moving into a nearby Catholic school — claiming outdoor showers running on generators 24 hours a day will pose a “nuisance.”
Scott Kerkert and a slew of Republican lawmakers filed suit Friday seeking a temporary restraining order to halt the housing of hundreds of asylum seekers at the former St. John Villa Academy.
“I don’t want to be here because we don’t want to see this building, a migrant shelter, in the middle of his beautiful neighborhood,” said Borough President Vito Fossella, one of the plaintiffs, at a press conference outside the former boarding school on the east shore of Staten Island.
The Republicans — which also included city Councilmen Joe Borelli and David Carr; Assemblymen Michael Tannousis, Mike Reilly, Sam Pirozzolo; and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis — argued the shelter is unfair to the local community.
Kerkert said the showers will be installed with loud generators right next to his home on Landis Avenue.
“To put it bluntly, who would want to live in a home with dozens of outdoor showers run by noisy generators directly abutting the home,” said the suit, filed in Richmond County Supreme Court.
Later Friday, a Staten Island judge blocked the city from housing migrants at St. John Villa — but a high court later overturned the ruling, Carr said.
The lawmakers and residents got a minor victory later on Friday after a Staten Island judge blocked the city from housing migrants at the location but a higher court later overturned the ruling, according to Carr.
The portable showers are part of the city’s $20 million no-bid contract to a Florida-based firm to provide emergency showers to migrant shelters across the five boroughs.
Staten Island pols are also fighting a plan to send migrants to Fort Wadsworth — a defunct military installation sitting on 226 acres that was turned over to the National Park Service in 1994.
The move to house migrants in the school has sparked widespread outrage in the Arrochar neighborhood, and more than 1,000 people took to the streets earlier this week to protest the new shelter site.
The demonstrations continued Thursday night and led to three arrests on charges of trespassing and obstruction, according to the NYPD.
Thousands of migrants have been flooding into New York City each week since spring 2022, forcing city officials to scramble to open makeshift shelters and put families up in hotels as they arrive.
Nearly 60,000 migrants are currently in the care of the city, officials said earlier this week.
Gov. Kathy Hochul made an impassioned address Thursday, blaming President Biden for creating the mess and failing to clean it up. She demanded work authorizations for migrants and more federal funding to help deal with the influx.
But Mayor Eric Adams criticized the governor for not going far enough in her remarks and urged her to ask Biden to declare a state of emergency, which would allow for quicker access to federal funds to help offset the costs, mainly being shouldered by the city.
The closed-down school was purchased by the city back in 2018, with the goal of adding more than 1,000 new school seats, which never came to fruition.
Additional reporting by Amanda Woods
