Residents and elected officials are speaking out on social media against the city’s plan to open a massive new migrant shelter in the South Bronx while closing 13 other sites citywide by June.
The new shelter is planned for a vacant building on Bruckner Boulevard with capacity for 2,200 single adults, mostly transferred from the tent structure at Randall’s Island, which is closing next month, according to city officials. The number of new migrants across New York City has decreased for each of the past 27 weeks, and now, with the lowest total in 18 months, the city is “reshuffling” and “reconsolidating,” a spokesperson said.
But the plan to close 10,000 beds citywide has not included the South Bronx, where opposition to the new shelter is growing.
Council Member Diana Ayala, whose district includes the shelter, told the Bronx Times that she recommended the building for a potential shelter nearly two years ago, yet it remained vacant through the height of the emergency. Ayala said she was not informed in advance about the city’s plans to use it at this time.
Although she expressed concern about housing thousands of migrants in one location, the new shelter will be only temporary as more people are exiting the system than entering, Ayala said.
But Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr. said the site is another example of the city’s consistent burdening of the South Bronx with shelters and affordable housing.
“Once again, the South Bronx is carrying the weight for homelessness in the city of New York,” he told the Bronx Times. “It’s a never-ending saga.”
Borough President Vanessa Gibson called the plan “deeply concerning, and frankly, unacceptable.” In a statement, Gibson said that community engagement regarding the new shelter was lacking. “We are repeatedly blindsided by these proposals through the media rather than through meaningful dialogue with the communities they affect.”
Gibson expressed concern about the large size of the shelter — which she said should be used for long-term housing instead — and also pointed to the potential for Trump administration officials to target the site for mass deportation efforts, a concern shared by Ayala.
As media coverage of the new shelter has increased, local residents are also making their opposition and skepticism known.
Clarisa Alayeto, chair of Community Board 1, which covers Mott Haven, Port Morris and Melrose, took to social media to say that “once again, decisions are made without consulting residents, businesses, or those directly impacted.”
“We’ve seen and heard a lot of the [safety] issues that have happened near migrant shelters, with migrants,” she said in a video post. “How are we ensuring this is not going to be the case in the South Bronx?”
The Bronx Times reached out to Community Board 2, covering Hunts Point, Longwood and Morrisania, and has not yet received a response. According to Salamanca Jr., the board wrote a letter of opposition to the shelter.
The 40th Precinct Community Council also opposes the plan, saying on Instagram that it could cause increased crime and quality of life problems and a strain on local resources.
The council said a meeting is being planned (date TBD) to hear more community input. “With the ongoing spike in crime, coupled with existing challenges such as needle litter, homelessness, mental illness, and vagrancy, we firmly believe that adding this shelter will further strain our already overburdened neighborhood.”
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A major problem with the city’s plan, according to Alayeto, is that it was implemented without seeking residents’ input.
“There are a lot of questions that our community and our residents have,” she said in the video. “Nobody came to talk to the community.”
This story was updated Jan. 16 at 9:30 a.m. to include official comments from Gibson.
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes