NYC converts hotels to shelters as pressure mounts to accommodate asylum seekers

NEW YORK (AP) — The historic Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan shuttered three years ago, but it will soon be bustling again — reopening to accommodate an anticipated influx of asylum seekers just as other New York City hotels are being converted to emergency shelters.

Mayor Eric Adams announced Saturday that the city will use the Roosevelt to eventually provide as many as 1,000 rooms for migrants who are expected to arrive in the coming weeks because of the expiration of pandemic-era rules, known collectively as Title 42, that had allowed federal officials to turn away asylum seekers from the US border with Mexico.

Across the city, hotels like the Roosevelt that served tourists just a few years ago are being transformed into emergency shelters, many of them in prime locations within walking distance from Times Square, the World Trade Center memorial site and the Empire State Building.

A legal mandate requires the city to provide shelter to anyone who needs it.

Even so, Adams says the city is running out of room for migrants and has sought financial help from the state and federal governments.

New York City has now cared for more than 65,000 asylum seekers — already opening up over 140 emergency shelters and eight large-scale humanitarian relief centres in addition to this one to manage this national crisis,” the mayor said in a statement announcing the Roosevelt decision.

As the city faces growing pressure to expand its shelter system, it is turning to vacant hotels for those who need a roof and a place to bunk down as they sort out their lives.

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