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WPCNR MIGRANT MONITOR. From Governor Hochul’s Press Office. August 14, 2023:

A shelter site on state-owned land at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens will open next week and will have the capacity to house up to 1,000 asylum seekers, and a shelter site that is fully paid for by the State of New York will open shortly on Randall’s Island. The State has already loaned New York City sites at the former Lincoln Correctional Facility in Manhattan and at a state-owned building at JFK Airport in Queens, both of which opened in June and house more than 1,000 asylum seekers every day. 

In addition to Governor Hochul’s meeting with Tom Perez, Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President of the United States, federal officials have increased their assistance to New York in recent weeks following months of advocacy from Governor Hochul and local leaders. State, federal, and city officials toured federally-owned sites at Floyd Bennett Field and Fort Wadsworth to assess their suitability for sheltering asylum seekers. Hochul Administration officials will also be meeting with U.S. Department of Interior officials tomorrow to discuss federally-owned land that could be appropriate to use as shelter.

A $25 million investment was included in the FY 2024 Budget to voluntarily relocate 1,250 families – approximately 4,375 individuals – who have already applied for asylum; this funding is in addition to more than $700 million in the FY 2024 Budget allocated for temporary shelter at hotels and mass shelter sites. At this time, 17 families who are willing to participate and eligible to participate have been identified by the City and are in this State-funded program and the State will continue to support relocation for additional families as they opt into the program. Participants in this program, who are on the path to work authorization in the United States, will be relocated and matched with social service agencies who can help them adjust and resettle while NYS pays for their rent.

Governor Hochul also announced the deployment of additional New York National Guard personnel and assets to asylum seeker sites in Erie County. The deployment to Erie County builds on more than 1,800 National Guard personnel who are currently providing logistical and operational support to shelters in New York City. More than 30 of the hotel-based shelter sites in New York City are staffed exclusively by New York State National Guard personnel and an additional 18 are primarily staffed through these State personnel.