Migrant arrivals in NYC have drastically slowed — but shelter population remains steady at around 65K
The influx of migrants coming to the Big Apple has drastically slowed since the beginning of the year — but the number of those in city shelters has remained the same, even with the mayor’s time limits on stays.
Between 1,100-1,500 migrants have been arriving in the city each week since March, according to figures from the Adams administration.
It followed peaks of about 4,000 weekly migrant arrivals in January — when the shelter population hit a high of about 69,500.
As of last Tuesday, there were about 65,300 migrants housed in the taxpayer-funder shelters — a tally that plateaued in March, when the range of weekly arrivals was 1,100-1,200, down from 1,300-1,500 in February, according to the figures.
About 1,100 migrants came to the city in the week ending June 16, the most recent number City Hall would provide.
Mayor Eric Adams has touted his administration’s limit on stays — 60 days for families and 30 days for single people — as a way to help alleviate the burden on the city’s shelter system and help migrants to move on. The policy went into effect last fall.
And as of mid-May, single migrants who’ve hit the 30-day limit and want to re-apply for housing must prove they have “extenuating circumstances” to warrant another shelter stay.
But some experts and pols question the effectiveness of the controversial policy, which has faced blowback from lawmakers on both sides and from asylum seeker advocates.
Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, said Adams’ limits on migrant stays are well-intentioned, but can only have a limited impact by design.
“They allow people to re-up,” Camarota said, noting that it’s hard to measure the policy’s effects as some migrants choose to move on regardless, and it’s unclear what the average length of stay was prior to the limits.
Camarota said the policy is also undermined by New York’s laws, including it’s “Right to Shelter” and pro-sanctuary policies, which encourage migrants to keep coming.
“New York has no one to blame but themselves,” Camarota said. “The city’s ‘Right to Shelter’ policy undermines the mayor’s stated goal to get migrants to move out.”
Queens Councilman Bob Holden skewered the policy as “toothless,” echoing Camarota.
“The best way to lower the migrant population is to stop the freebies, get rid of the Right to Shelter, and end sanctuary city status,” the Democrat said.
He added: “The population isn’t declining despite far fewer arrivals, proving once again that the pie-in-the-sky, detached idealism by the left when the limits were placed was unfounded.”
On Monday, just a few dozen people stood outside the migrant arrival center at Midtown’s Roosevelt Hotel — a stark contrast from earlier this year when the line wrapped around the block.
Local workers said that the full-size charter buses which used to bring migrants to the city have been replaced by smaller vehicles that drop off the new arrivals at the welcome center a few times a week.
City Hall, when pressed by The Post, said it expects to see the shelter population dip before the school year starts up in the fall.
“The summertime is a great time to resettle children and families,” said Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom during a press conference in City Hall on June 17.
“We’re going to be working really closely with the state in order to do that,” she continued. “I’m very excited about this opportunity now that kids will be getting out of school soon to really see where are the places that other people want to resettle.”
Williams-Isom added that the administration was watching numbers “really closely” but had no plans, at the moment, to impose stricter policies.
