With NYC migrant mega-shelter more than half full, Adams faces heat for deploying cops to break up hotel encampment

A day after the NYPD cleared migrants from makeshift encampments in midtown Manhattan, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams on Thursday criticized Mayor Adams’ handling of the situation as “disappointing.”
As of Thursday afternoon, about 600 migrants — many of whom set up tents after being told they’d have to vacate midtown’s Watson Hotel — are now being housed at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook, a site the migrants and their advocates have decried as lacking the basics.
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Scores of migrants are seen here, on February 1,2023, leaving, under orders of the police, the area they had occupied in front of the Watson Hotel, on West 57 street. There were no arrests. (Sam Costanza/for New York Daily News)
On Wednesday night, NYPD officers and Sanitation Department workers took down the encampment outside the W. 57th St. hotel, busing some to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal but drawing howls from activists. No arrests were made.
“It’s disappointing that the administration chose to handle the situation outside of the Watson Hotel in the manner it did,” Speaker Adams, who’s not related to the mayor, said Thursday during a City Hall press conference. “From the beginning of the effort to move individuals to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, there appeared to be inefficient communication and transparency.”
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City officials have said they needed to move migrant men out of the hotel to make room for families and children at the Watson.
Adams’ efforts to transfer men from the Watson to Brooklyn hit a snag over the weekend when some returned to the hotel and set up tents and sleeping bags to protest the move. More than a dozen complained it was too cold inside the emergency relief center, and others said the remote Brooklyn location made commuting to work difficult.
The Watson hotel is pictured Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023 in Manhattan, New York. NYPD and city workers cleared out the encampment of migrants and activists Wednesday night. (Barry Willilams/for New York Daily News)
Mayoral spokesman Fabien Levy has repeatedly dismissed those claims, insisting that the temperature inside is more balmy than bitter. He has also referred to advocates as “agitators” and said Wednesday that they were encouraging the migrants “to endanger their lives in these freezing temperatures and not accept shelter.”
”We are grateful that almost all single men who were staying at the Watson Hotel chose to heed our calls and come inside from the frigid temperatures last night. The men who were staying at the Watson all either chose to transfer to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal — a humanitarian relief center that multiple elected officials yesterday called a ‘warm’ location — or decided to leave our care by connecting with friends, family, or other networks,” Levy said Thursday.
“The only items discarded were those on the street,” he added. “Any items asylum seekers had in their rooms are still in our care and will remain available for pick up.”
On Thursday, the Council speaker also laid some of the blame at the feet of advocates who’ve criticized the Brooklyn relief center, saying they “did not help the overall situation” and “may have actually played a role in undermining trust.”
“Some of this could have been averted with more openness about the cruise terminal, earlier engagement, access and clearer communication” she said. “That didn’t happen, and unfortunately we ended up in a standoff with a lack of trust on all sides.”
Migrants arrive at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York City on Monday, January 30, 2023. (Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)
But the speaker also suggested the administration’s decisions around the Watson Hotel were especially perplexing given that Gov. Hochul announced Wednesday that the state is prepared to contribute $1 billion to help manage the migrant crisis.
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When asked if she thinks Mayor Adams can effectively spend that money — given his approach to the migrant crisis so far — the Council speaker did not provide a yes or no response. But she said the city’s problems housing its homeless were apparent and pressing long before the migrants’ arrival exacerbated the situation.
She commended the mayor for pressing President Biden for more aid when it comes to the migrants, but contended that the solution to the crisis isn’t just about money or a problem for the state and federal government to solve.
“The city has options. We have things that we can do within the city’s own control, to control and address the city’s homelessness situation — the situation that we felt way before the asylum seekers started coming in,” she said. “The administration hasn’t done so, but it needs to. We’re going to, as a Council, have to begin to take action to pass laws in this regard.”
Among the possible solutions she floated is eliminating the rule requiring 90 days to pass before someone in the shelter system can be eligible for city rental vouchers. She also pointed to staffing up city social services agencies.
Corinne Low, executive director of the local Open Hearts Initiative that has been helping the migrants, slammed Hizzoner for using the NYPD in his efforts to move the migrants.
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“No one deserves to be swept away, and the image of dozens of NYC cops confronting asylum seekers who have traveled thousands of miles in perilous conditions to have a chance of a better life is deeply disturbing,” she said. “I hope the mayor finds his heart and finds a better way to negotiate challenges than blaming ‘outside agitators.’”
Manhattan Councilwoman Gale Brewer, who toured the Red Hook facility Wednesday, said Thursday that about 600 migrants are being housed there now.
Levy declined to offer an exact headcount, but confirmed the mega shelter was “more than half full” as of Thursday afternoon. The facility has a total capacity of 1,000 people.
Despite complaints from migrants that the Red Hook site is freezing at night, Brewer said she found it warm during her tour.
But she still she has concerns.
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“Privacy is an issue because the beds are extremely close together, but it was warm. It was safe,” she said. ”People are also concerned about where they can store their belongings.”
“There’s a fear, obviously, that since the cots are so close together, it would be terrible if someone did get COVID,” she added.
Brewer also lamented that the city isn’t providing migrants with better transportation access and said the city should provide migrants with free MetroCards.