In order to accommodate homeless New Yorkers and free up space in shelters to concurrently solve the immigration and homelessness crises, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso is urging local and state officials to release tens of thousands of vacant market-rate apartments. In order to accommodate homeless New Yorkers and free up space in shelters to concurrently handle the immigration and homelessness crises, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso is urging local and state officials to release tens of thousands of empty market-rate apartments.
In order to provide space for migrants in shelters in New York City, Brooklyn Borough President Reynoso suggests relocating the homeless into unoccupied residences.
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Reynoso pleaded with the New York City Council, Mayor Eric Adams, and the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul, during a recent news conference at Brooklyn Borough Hall, to implement this idea as well as the other two he had proposed.
The borough president named three approaches that can help migrants and homeless New Yorkers find housing. With 80,000 people staying in municipal-run shelters and more than 41,000 migrants now in its custody, the city is currently overrun with homeless people. Families with young children make up the majority of such shelters.
The temporary shelters at schools, according to Reynoso, are “not ideal” and “not at all what we want.” He spoke about his two young boys and expressed his desire for them to have access to all of the educational and recreational opportunities accessible to them as a father. He claimed that innovative solutions are now required to assist the city’s most in-need residents and recent immigrants.
Reynoso noted, “The people are not the crisis — homelessness and our defunded city services are the crisis.” He added, “I call on the City Council, Mayor Adams, and Governor Hochul to take legal steps toward empowering our government to get those who have been stuck in our shelter system the longest into the tens of thousands of apartments that sit vacant and ensuring the communities outside of New York City contribute to the greater good as well.”
First, Reynoso encouraged the New York City Council to approve a bill directing Mayor Adams to “use government power to solve the homelessness crisis through the private sector.”
By designating the migrants as an emergency under administrative law, this legislation would order Adams to rent market flats for the lodging of homeless families and individuals who had spent the most time in local shelters, “creating space in our shelter for new arrivals.”
The law would obligate landlords to rent out flats at market rates and prevent them from doing so during what Reynoso described as “an emergency crisis.”
Approximately 89,000 rent-stabilized units and tens of thousands of market-rate apartments that are all likely empty, unleased, or unregistered were both highlighted by Reynoso in a startlingly large number. According to him, refugees and asylum seekers might then occupy the roughly 41,400 shelter beds.
At the press conference, Reynoso noted, “The wealth of space and housing that exists in this city is unimaginable.” “However, these flats are completely unoccupied. It’s morally repugnant.
Reynoso is also pressuring Adams to release a fresh emergency executive order citing homelessness as a public emergency, which he claims was previously in existence prior to more than 65,000 migrants landing in New York City since last spring.
He also encouraged Adams to request state aid from Governor Hochul in accordance with a state executive legislation requiring state assistance — in the form of resources and staff — for a “local state of emergency.”
According to Reynoso, the idea could have the ability to “compel municipal governments” close to New York City to work together in providing temporary shelters and contributing to more affordable homes in the long run.
Rockland County, which is about 36 miles north of New York City, was mentioned by the borough president as an example of a jurisdiction that would be compelled to overturn its recent ban on motels and hotels being used as migrant shelters.
Public Advocate Jumanne Williams, Council Members Alexa Avilés, Rita Joseph, Chi Ossé, and Lincoln Restler, as well as representatives of State Senators Andrew Gounardes, Julia Salazar, and Phara Souffrant Forrest, joined the borough president at Brooklyn Borough Hall.
Williams implored New Yorkers to see the migrants as people who urgently need resources and support, even while he acknowledged the dread and worry that many New Yorkers and families are experiencing.
Williams claimed, “It’s easy to say that you’re a humanitarian. It’s easy to say that you’re a sanctuary city.” he added, “It’s easy to say these things until you’re in crisis.”
Although the public advocate acknowledged that the present immigration crisis is “unsafe and unsustainable,” he advised against seeing it as a “us versus them” conflict. He admitted that New Yorkers are still struggling to obtain support for themselves.
“It is very important that we don’t blame people who need assistance,” Williams noted. “The answer is and has always been trying to address our deeply problematic affordable housing crisis.”
Reynoso underlined his dissatisfaction over the federal government’s failure to significantly provide emergency assistance for New York City while tens of thousands of migrants are being brought in. Adams was disappointed when the city’s Office of Emergency Management received just $30.5 million in May from the Federal Emergency Management Agency after having requested $350 million.
Reynoso noted, “Just because we here in Brooklyn can’t do everything, doesn’t mean we can’t do something.” He continued, “This is about our city and state showing up — along with every New Yorker and every neighborhood — to put forward creative solutions that help us get people into stable, dignified housing and protect the rights and dignity of people arriving here from the border.”
Reynoso recently visited P.S. 17 in Williamsburg, where 70 migrants would be housed, in response to a demonstration organized against the proposed migrant housing.
In a recent statement, the borough president noted, “One of the reasons I went there was because I was disappointed that I saw parents and children from my neighborhood — the neighborhood my immigrant Dominican parents built our home in when they first came here seeking a better life — fill the sidewalk in protest against those who need shelter there.”
Council Member Justin Brannan (D-43) declared in a tweet that P.S. 188 in Coney Island, which is in his district, is no longer being utilized as a makeshift shelter, concluding, “Our schools should not be used for this purpose.” In a recent tweet, Council Member Ari Kagan announced that the shelter’s activities will be moved to another location in Manhattan.
P.S. 189 in Crown Heights, P.S. 172 in Sunset Park, P.S. 17, P.S. 18, and M.S. 577, all in Williamsburg, are the five schools in Brooklyn that have been revealed to be putting migrants in its gyms.
In a statement issued on May 16 with five other North Brooklyn council members, Jennifer Gutiérrez (D-34) said, “As North Brooklyn elected officials, we were notified alongside our school leaders about the administration’s plans to use three standalone school gym facilities in our district to shelter migrants, a direct result of the Mayor’s Executive Order 402, which suspends Right to Shelter laws. Elected officials are not consulted on these emergency shelters.”
The council members described the decision to keep migrants in school buildings as “far from ideal” and stated that they “expressed concerns about the equitable distribution of shelters in our district.” Inquiries from the council members to the city administration have been made concerning “how the sites will be operated, for how long, and mitigating disruption of school activities, like recess, special events, and Summer Rising programs.”
