On a typical afternoon at the migrant shelter located off Hall Street in Brooklyn, local residents describe seeing migrants eating their own food and selling products.

And some feel this is a sign that the city has not done enough to help the 3,000 migrant men who are being housed at the emergency shelter site.

What You Need To Know

  • Clinton Hill residents say that thousands of migrants have been placed in the local community with few resources
  • Residents say some migrants stand outside for most of the day with nothing to do
  • Residents and local City Councilmember Crystal Hudson have sent letters to the mayor's office asking for additional resources to help migrants

“The neighbors in Clinton Hill were overwhelmed. This is too much for us,” said Renee Collymore, a local resident. “Why are they making sandwiches and food on the street? This is inhumane.”

Collymore is just one of several residents who have reached their breaking point amid what critics are saying is a lack of government help for the migrants in the neighborhood.

They accuse Mayor Eric Adams and his administration of dumping single men and families of migrants into Clinton Hill with little help.

Residents say they have been the ones picking up the slack by holding donation drives, providing food weekly and helping with translation services.

“They’re sitting there eating. You treat them like nothing,” Mary Chang said. “Fix this. Fix this. This is wrong. This is not a humanitarian effort. You need a new paradigm.”

In early May, hundreds of local residents came together for a meeting. The neighborhood then proposed a series of solutions to the migrant problem, including reducing the size of the Hall Street shelter to 400 migrants.

“The problem is not the asylum seekers. The problem is the size of this shelter. Right now, the city has crammed 3,200 single men into cots back-to-back. There’s no congregate space. They have no lockers,” Alia McKee said.

The mayor is not the only person who residents accuse of doing too little. They also say local City Councilmember Crystal Hudson has not been helpful.

“She keeps saying to the news that everything is fine, but it's not,” Daniel Tracy said.

In a statement provided to Spectrum News NY1, Alejandro Gonzalez, a spokesperson for Hudson, called the allegations of inaction “disingenuous.”

Hudson has in fact called on the mayor to do more. She sent a letter on May 6 asking the mayor to hold a town hall in 30 days or less.

“My concern isn’t necessarily reducing the capacity, but increasing the services and the resources that are being provided to those communities so that they can more easily integrate into our society,” Hudson said.

Hudson said she wants to see the mayor provide additional funding for sanitation services, job training and mental health support in the area.

NY1 has reached out to the mayor’s office for comment and has yet to hear back.

Hudson and community members say they also haven’t received a response from the mayor’s office.