Congressman Ritchie Torres Writes to Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams in Response to New Bronx 2,200-Bed Men’s Migrant Shelter

On Thursday, Congressman Ritchie Torres (NY-15) wrote to New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The letter reads (full PDF here):

“I am writing to call upon the City to stop treating the Bronx as a dumping ground for an endless stream of shelters. For far too long, the Bronx has been relegated to the status of a second-class borough in New York City and a second-class county in New York State.

“The City’s latest decision to single out the Bronx for the siting of a 2,200–bed men’s migrant shelter is typical of the second-class treatment that the Bronx has historically been given. Neither the State nor the City would ever think of siting a 2,200-bed men’s migrant shelter in the wealthiest neighborhoods—these controversial sitings seem to be reserved only for the poorest communities in places like the Bronx.

“The City is paying $250,000-$340,000 to retrofit a building for a men’s migrant shelter—not to mention the staggering cost of sheltering 2200 migrants. What have the State and the City paid to permanently house the New Yorkers displaced by the fire at 2910 Wallace Avenue? What have the State and the City paid to permanently dismantle the open-air drug market in the Hub? The answer to these questions reveals where the state and the city’s priorities truly lie.

“Just as troubling as the cost to taxpayers is the cost to public safety and quality of life. The City appears to be replacing the encampment at Randall’s Island with the new migrant shelter in the South Bronx. The encampment at Randall’s Island reportedly descended into a hotbed of gang violence. Instead of reducing gang violence in the Bronx, the City is relocating gang violence to the Bronx—something that would never be allowed to happen in a wealthier neighborhood.

“The hundreds of Bronx residents displaced from the fire at 2910 Wallace Avenue have yet to be given permanent housing. The State and the City have spent more resources on siting migrant shelters in the Bronx than either has on permanently housing the displaced families of 2910 Wallace Avenue or on permanently dismantling the open-air drug market in the Hub.

“The State under Governor Kathy Hochul has catastrophically mismanaged the migrant crisis that has struck New York the hardest.

“The City has been burdened with an ever-expanding right-to-shelter policy that it simply cannot afford, a policy in which every asylum seeker on earth is entitled to taxpayer-funded shelter immediately upon arrival—a state of affairs never contemplated by Callahan vs. Carey. An open-ended right to shelter—rather than one reserved only for residents—amounts to a massive subsidy for mass migration, and when you subsidize something, you get more of it, and in the case of New York, more than we can afford. Those who pretend that New York has unlimited resources for unlimited migration is lying to themselves and to New Yorkers.

“The State of New York has scarce resources and therefore must set priorities. The priority should be the People of New York.”