“Huddled Masses” Strain New York

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large
There are at least two more months of frigid winter, and a common scene on New York City streets are “huddled masses”, resembling piles of discarded old clothes. The heaps actually are layers of clothes keeping homeless people warm.
Then there are people walking in traffic, tapping on windows, asking for change. Or food. Common on the subway trains or platforms are the women with babies bound to their backs, selling sweets for a dollar.
Add to that the steady number of West African men who are finding ways to make a dollar to eat. It may be food delivery on fast bikes, setting up tables selling hats and gloves, etc. There are those walking into mosques, churches , and the offices of elected officials, desperate for shelter and help.
New York City is struggling to house the almost 70,000 migrants left in the city out of the 168,000 who traveled to the Big Apple since last April. Nine months later, there’s no sign of hope springing eternal for easing this situation.
“At ground level, in the neighborhoods and communities throughout Brooklyn–and all of the City, there are uneasy interactions–not only between migrants and the citizen residents but between the diverse migrant groups themselves,” Marquez “Marq” Claxton, founder of the Black Law Enforcement Alliance, told Our Time Press.

“While the Federal government denies the necessary support funding, the City has to use its own financial resources to stabilize the migrant population,” continued the Brooklyn-born social justice advocate and retired detective. “The lack of traditional work authorizations and opportunities has created a survival competition. Increases in poverty/property-related crimes, larceny, burglaries, and robberies are inevitable and commensurate with the under-resourced migrant population.
“Add to the mix the disparate support of some immigrant populations due to their seemingly subjective Temporary Protected Status, and you have a powder-keg situation in which, in this case, the Federal government is acting like a casual observer.”
The Gothamist reported recently that, “New polling of New Yorkers reveals wide-ranging ambivalence about the city’s sheltering of its burgeoning migrant population, including on such basic questions as whether the city should continue helping the newcomers settle — and for how long.”
Citing a “Right to Shelter” HarrisX survey on behalf of the New York Immigration Coalition, they reported that “just 58% agreed that the city’s ‘right to shelter should include all families in need, including asylum-seekers,’ and 42% agreed that ‘the right to shelter should be limited to only New York families.’”
Only 30% of respondents felt that “‘New Yorkers should continue to accept new migrants and asylum-seekers,’ while 70% agreed that ‘New Yorkers have already accepted enough migrants.” Then again, “60% agreed ‘New Yorkers should continue to live by the words written on the Statue of Liberty, ‘Give me your tired, your poor … Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.’”

“The American asylum-seeker/migrant crisis is directly connected to American policies and international trade agreements,” community advocate Olanike Alabi told Our Time Press.
“In order for America to address the crisis in New York City, the nation must first pass comprehensive immigration reform at the Federal level and re-examine its treatment of nations referred to as ‘third-world.’ Those who empathize with the plight of migrants will do what they do best and that’s open their hearts and their wallets. The real question is how can we expect the government to adequately address the crisis affecting new migrants when they have been lacking in addressing the needs of everyday New Yorkers?”
The Gothamist reported, “President Joe Biden, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams, as well as the City Council, state Legislature and Congress.
Respondents handed each of them ‘underwater’ approval ratings for their handling of the migrant issue: 37% for Biden’s administration; 39% for Hochul’s; 35% for Adams’; 36% for the Legislature; 36% for City Council; and 29% for Congress.”
There are rallies galore, covering all the angles, including this week’s protest at City Hall slamming Mayor Adams’ enactment of his 60-day-limit shelter eviction rule for families. The rule for adults is 30 days. Around 4,800 families received eviction notices in late 2023. The evictions began on January 9th, 2024, and they had to reapply for shelter at allocated centers like the Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan.

During his November announcement that he was slashing all city-agency spending by 5% due to the cost of the crisis, Mayor Adams announced that migrant spending would also be hit.
“Our mayor is a slumlord,” charged Deputy City Council Speaker Diana Ayala at Monday’s City Hall rally. Having families shuffling around the city to find shelter has a domino effect; and it is “cruel and inhumane to remove children out of schools,’ where they had some semblance of stability and some access to services.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said, “This action actively hurts people, uprooting youth and families with children, forcing them to navigate an unnecessarily burdensome and bureaucratic process to receive a new shelter placement.”
Then, during last week’s State of the State address Governor Kathy Hochul tapped $2.4 billion for the City of New York for the continuing migrant crisis. This should take some pressure off, but this week, Mayor Adams said that the city has had to manage this crisis with, “No help from the federal government. We had to navigate this on our own, getting thousands a week, not a month. There’s some weeks we got four to five thousand that Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom had to figure out how to house.
“Unlike other cities, not one child or family is sleeping on the streets of the City of New York. And we have the audacity to tell people within 30 days with intense support, you have to be self-sustaining because we can’t carry you forever.”
At the Community Conversation in Co-op City Dreiser Community Center, the Mayor said, “And you had the loud noises of those who never navigated this process telling us we’re inhumane for telling people 30 days you have to navigate out of the system. Eighty percent of the single adults we told they had to navigate out in 30 days, 80 percent went and became self-sufficient.

Bed Stuy resident Mark Lawton lives near the Bedford Armory, which is partly being used as a migrant shelter. He told Our Time Press, “The fight should not just be about the migrants, it should be about all the homeless, and dispossessed. Food, clothing, and shelter is a human right.
“The argument for some, is that the migrants are receiving all the services which poor people already here should be getting. They feel that resources should already be established, (and the migrants’) presence should not be impacting the community as hard as it is. It’s a human rights issue.”
Mayor Adams said, “This is not something … migrants should be blamed for. This is something that our national government needs to fix with a real decompression strategy and to fund this.”
Publishers’ note to readers: You are welcome to share your thoughts on or experiences with The Migrant Situation at editors@ourtimepress.com.