Migrant advocates say families are being 'warehoused' in NYC

NEW YORK (PIX11) -- Isabella, standing on West 31st Street in Midtown Manhattan with her children Tuesday, told PIX11 News that she's been living at the Stewart Hotel for a month and a half. She said it's not perfect, but she is receiving services from the city.

"A lot of benefits, things like child care, things like making sure they are being fed, and they have access to services," said Isabella.

But several migrant families — it's difficult to determine an exact number — are now being transferred without much warning from various traditional migrant shelters, including those operated by Women in Need (WIN), to hotels, where migrant advocates argue they are often "warehoused."

Mayor Eric Adams spoke about this practice on Tuesday.

"We have yet to see the long-term impact of what this crisis has done to our city," Adams said. "Whatever methodology that the team is using, it is well thought out and it has been successful thus far. If that is an aspect of it that the team has figured out, I support the decisions of the team. You hire good people and let them do the job to resolve this crisis."

Adams and his team have repeatedly gone on the record defending the 60-day shelter policy for families in the face of an ongoing stream of incoming migrants, which they argue is out of their control.

But former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the current WIN CEO, isn't convinced and accuses the Adams administration of intentionally complicating a migrant's journey toward stability.

"This practice of moving families out of shelter with basically no notice at all is even worse than the 60-day evictions that we have all been fighting. If you were at a WIN shelter, the children might have been part of Camp WIN," Quinn said. "I believe the city of New York is conducting these administrative evictions, implementing the 30- and 60-day rule to make migrants' lives more difficult in the hopes they will just throw up their hands and just go back to the dangerous place they came from."

Isabella knows she can't stay at the shelter forever and is simply hoping for a heads-up the next time she needs to move.   

"It's probably most difficult on the children," said Isabella.

The mayor's office acknowledges the practice of transferring migrant families from shelters to hotels. The city's rationale is to get them closer to services they need.

The mayor's office also acknowledged another practice of giving families only 48 hours' notice of the move.