New York City will open a center in midtown Manhattan to serve asylum seeker families, Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday.
The Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center will be located at The Row NYC Hotel and will initially serve 200 asylum seeker families with children, with the potential to serve additional families in the coming weeks, the press release said.
At the center, families will be provided with services that include shelter, food, medical care and case work services, as well as a variety of settlement options.
“Our team will continue to work with these families and assess if they want to actually stay in New York City and, if not, help them get to their desired destinations,” Adams said in a statement. “This is not an everyday homelessness crisis, but a humanitarian crisis that requires a different approach, and these humanitarian emergency response centers will take on a multitude of looks with the similarities that they will all help triage and provide immediate support to arriving asylum seekers.”
On Monday, the city began construction of tent-like structures to serve 500 asylum seekers on Randall’s Island, but that center will serve only adults.
The announcement comes days after Adams declared a “state of emergency” due to the rising migrant crisis.