New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced this week that the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center on Randall’s Island will close at the end of February.

The decision follows a 14-week decline in the number of asylum seekers in city shelters, which has reached its lowest level in over a year, City Hall said.

What You Need To Know

  • New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center on Randall’s Island will close on Feb. 28, 2025

  • The decision follows a 14-week decline in the number of asylum seekers in city shelters

  • The city has already reduced capacity at the Randall’s Island facility by dismantling the largest residential tent structure that housed more than 750 cots

The city has already reduced capacity at the Randall’s Island facility, which opened in August 2023, by dismantling the largest residential tent structure that housed more than 750 cots and returning one of the athletic fields to community use. The facility once housed 3,000 single adult men and currently hosts 2,250.

In the coming months, the Adams administration said it will gradually decrease the on-site population. After the center's closure in February, the city will invest in restoring the remaining impacted athletic fields and parkland.

“We’re not out of the woods yet, but make no mistake, thanks in large part to our smart management strategies and successful advocacy, we have turned the corner on this crisis,” Adams said in a statement.

“We’re not scrambling every day to open new shelters — we’re talking about closing them. We’re not talking about how much we’re spending — we’re talking about how much we’ve saved. And thanks to today’s announcement, in a few months, we’ll be talking about how much we’re investing in restoring Randall’s Island’s incredible fields and parks for community use.”

Since the arrival of the first buses of asylum seekers in 2022, the city’s Asylum Application Help Center has completed more than 72,000 applications for work authorization, temporary protected status and asylum, according to a press release from City Hall.

More than 218,000 migrants have come through city intake since the spring of 2022. Just last week, more than 700 migrants arrived in the five boroughs.

City officials also reported that the city has purchased 47,000 tickets to help migrants reach their preferred destinations, and staff has conducted more than 630,000 case management sessions with migrants.

As a result, about 158,000 migrants who requested services from the city “have taken their next steps in their journeys towards self-sufficiency,” City Hall said.