NYC plans to house migrants on an island in the East River

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan Monday to house as many as 2,000 migrants on an island in the East River where a migrant center was set up last year and then taken down weeks later.

The state will reimburse the city for the cost of operating a tent city for adult migrants on Randalls Island, Adams said.

“As the number of asylum seekers in our care continues to grow by hundreds every day, stretching our system to its breaking point and beyond, it has become more and more of a Herculean effort to find enough beds every night,” Adams, a Democrat, said in a news release.

“We’re grateful to Governor Hochul and New York state for their partnership in opening this new humanitarian relief center and covering the costs, and we need more of the same from all levels of government,” said Adams, who has repeatedly asked the federal government to provide more financial support to efforts to shelter migrants in New York City.

The city has rented out hotels to house migrants and has placed people in locations including a cruise ship terminal and a former police academy building as tens of thousands of asylum seekers have arrived over the past year.

More than 57,200 asylum seekers are in the city’s care now, Adams said.

City officials announced a plan last month to house 1,000 migrants in the parking lot of a state psychiatric hospital in Queens.

More recently, city officials began last week to send migrants to recreation centers at two Brooklyn parks, McCarren and Sunset.

Officials set up a migrant center last October on Randalls Island, in the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx, but then announced three weeks later that it would close the tent complex after the number of people being bused from southern border states diminished.