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WPCNR Migrants Today. May 24, 2023:

Being interviewed on WOR Radio Tuesday, County Executive George Latimer  in a statement implied he would accept New York City migrants placements in Westchester County:

He said: “Our attitude isn’t as severe as some of our neighboring counties. If we’re trying to help release a little bit of the pressure valve in New York City, we’ll help out. We’ll do a certain amount, and we’ll manage it, and we’ll try to make sure that it goes well.”

On WVOX Tuesday morning he said there was no “sanctuary” towns or cities in the county and no other locations other than the Yonkers Ramada Inn where 50 rooms are allocated and paid for by New York City to house migrants currently, at this time.

At the end of last week, the county has not yet  responded to WOR questions as to how the county was mobilizing with Westchester organizations, businesses, hotels and cities since last week  to line up possible migrant housing locations in the county.

WPCNR has learned that a number of non-profit organizations have been meeting and discussing needs and logistics as to how their organizations can respond to help and provide for New York’s 71,000 migrants needing housing.

The Hudson Valley Gateway Association of Realtors, asked by WPCNR if the realtors discussing a policy to find housing available for migrants in a statement wrote:

” HGAR does  not have a statement about housing at this point.  As for  foreclosures (as housing locations)  that would be up to individual brokers.” (The Regional Realtors are having a conference the first week in June where how real estate professionals could help the region respond to the migrant crisis by discussing possibilities, but it is not planned to do so at this time.)

Modayn NY Governor Kathy Hochul in an appearance in Brooklyn with Mayor Eric Adams, said the state is coordinating  locations to house the migrants. She did  not prohibit counties from  responding with their own local location suggestions. She called on the Biden Administration to provide Judges, Clerks and Money to expedite the asylum procedure.

in her address to the state Monday, she said:

“Right now, we have members of my senior team literally embedded working shoulder to deal with finding space, just emergency shelters, wherever we can find it. We have over 1,500 National Guard members. What are they doing? Building cribs, running out for food, making you feel secure, helping people apply for their asylum status, becoming a friend to people. And I want to thank our National Guard. This is a hurricane of sorts and they’ve been out there since for many months, and I want to thank them for what they’re doing.  

And we are identifying additional shelters.

“The city is overflowing. The mayor has used every ounce of creativity with him and his team to find space, and we are asking for more space. We’re looking at hangers at JFK.

We’ve asked for Floyd Bennett Field to stand up a major operation. We have other facilities we’ve been talking about. We’ll be announcing more on that briefly.