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Bronx neighbors deride Adams administration over planned migrant shelter on Bruckner Blvd.
By
Arun Venugopal
Published Jan 28, 2025
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Arun Venugopal/Gothamist
By
Arun Venugopal
Published Jan 28, 2025
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Bronx residents lambasted Adams administration officials Monday over their decision to place a 2,200-person migrant shelter at 322 Bruckner Blvd. in Mott Haven.
Speakers resoundingly derided the decision, which city officials outlined at a community board meeting. They complained it had been made without community input and expressed concern that it would put families and vulnerable residents at risk.
“ We have a lot of children here, we have a lot of senior citizens. We have a lot of people that's handicapped and blind,” said Sonia Taylor, a resident of the nearby Beekman Houses.
The new shelter is set to occupy what is currently a warehouse. It's scheduled to open in late February and will house single adult men.
Molly Schaeffer, the executive director of the city’s office of asylum-seeker operations, told the audience the new site would be temporary and was needed as the city managed a declining migrant population.
The migrant shelter population, which peaked at 69,000 in January 2024, has steadily decreased for 27 consecutive weeks.
“We're closing 20,000 beds,” Schaeffer said. “We still have 47,000 migrants in care. So it's sort of a right-sizing exercise. We've had 219 shelter sites open. We are down to 187, so we need to temporarily open this site to be able to close some other sites and then close this site as soon as we can.”
Camille Joseph Verlack, chief of staff to Mayor Eric Adams, defended the shelter's placement and pointed to “enhanced NYPD protection and presence in the area” as well as “additional cameras,” metal detectors and other features meant to ensure public safety.
Many of the new shelter's residents are eligible to work, Verlack added.
“So it's not a situation where they're necessarily sitting on their hands or trying to figure out what to do all day,” Verlack said, adding that the site would have personnel from the city department of Small Business Services as well as a number of community-based organizations.
But city officials' explanations did not allay attendees' fears.
Judy Kudlow, an artist who said she operates an art school in the neighborhood, said many of her students are young women.
“I have never been afraid in the South Bronx,” Kudlow said. “I am now terrified. I'm terrified for me, for my students. I will have to move.”
“You have made a terrible mistake,” Kudlow said.
Taylor also worried that the new shelter would pose a safety risk to area residents, and said the resources for migrants came at the expense of poor New Yorkers.
“Why do you keep making [migrant] shelters?” Taylor asked. “And still you have women and children and families that’s been in the shelter system for years, and they don't have an apartment.”
Daniel Barber, a community board member who chairs its committee on supportive and public housing, said city officials had failed to adequately consult with local community members.
“You can’t keep treating them like they don’t count,” Barber said.
He warned city officials that he would discuss the shelter with residents of the various public housing complexes in the area.
“They're not going to be happy,” Barber said. “And I think that my residents might even want to join forces with the surrounding community, and we go out and we protest in front of the facility to say it can't happen. Not in our town.”
Tagged
Asylum Seekers
Race And Justice Unit
bronx
Arun Venugopal
Arun Venugopal is a senior reporter for the WNYC and Gothamist Race & Justice Unit who focuses on issues of race and bias in our region. His reporting also tackles the topics of immigration, faith, and inequality. Arun serves as the regular fill-in host of the station's "U.S. of Anxiety" program. Arun was the creator and host of Micropolis, a series about race and identity. He is a contributor to NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. He has appeared on PBS Newshour, On the Media and Studio 360, and has been published in The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal and Salon. He also frequently serves as an emcee and moderator of panel discussions on race, religion, and identity issues and has been a guest host of NPR's "Fresh Air." He lives with his family in Queens.
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