New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday announced that the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center at Floyd Bennett Field and 14 other city shelters for asylum seekers will close in the next two months.
As the number of asylum seekers in city shelters decreased for 22 straight weeks and is now at its lowest point in over 17 months, the city can now start closing more shelters, the mayor said in a press release.
Aside from Floyd Bennett Field, the shelters at Hotel RL in Bedford Stuyvesant, the Imperial Hotel on the border of East New York and Cypress Hills, and a Sleep Inn will also shutter in Brooklyn.
“Our intensive case management, paired with 30- and 60-day policies, have helped more than 170,000 migrants take their next steps on their journeys, because migrants don’t come here to live in our shelter system — they come here to pursue the American Dream," the mayor said. "We’re going to continue looking for more sites to consolidate and close, and more opportunities to save taxpayer money, as we continue to successfully manage this response."
Floyd Bennett Field served as a "relief valve" to provide critical shelter and resources to hundreds of families at their greatest time of need, said Molly Schaeffer, the executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Asylum Seeker Operations.
“Today’s announcement is a direct reflection of the tireless commitment of our teams and the tremendous work they do every day to ensure that people are ready to move on to the next steps in their journeys to self-sufficiency. New York City continues to lead from the front," she said.
The city said it will be closing a total of 25 shelters, including those previously announced in upstate New York, between November 2024 and March 2025.
Below is a complete list:
In New York City:
- El Rancho Hotel, Bronx
- Floyd Bennett Field Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center, Brooklyn
- Hotel RL, Brooklyn
- Imperial Hotel, Brooklyn
- Sleep Inn, Brooklyn
- 97th Street Dorms, Manhattan
- Americana Inn, Manhattan
- Hotel Merit, Manhattan
- Randall’s Island Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center, Manhattan
- Upper West Side Dorms – Amsterdam Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center, Manhattan
- Upper West Side Dorms – Stratford Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center, Manhattan
- The Essence at JFK, Queens
- JFK Respite Center, Queens
- Quality Inn JFK, Queens
- Voyage Hotel, Queens
In other parts of New York:
- Holiday Inn Express, Albany
- The Ramada Plaza, Albany
- SureStay Plus Best Western, Albany
- Red Roof Inn Plus, Amherst
- Ardsley Acres Hotel Court, Ardsley
- Best Western Inn, Buffalo
- Quality Inn, Buffalo
- The Crossroads Hotel, Newburgh
- Red Roof Inn Plus, Poughkeepsie
- Central Motel Courtyard, White Plains
