New York City officials are reportedly contemplating the establishment of campsites in public parks as temporary housing for undocumented immigrants.
This comes after Mayor Eric Adams' administration had previously set up tent-like shelters for newcomers. The new proposal, however, involves distributing private tents to these individuals.
Sources familiar with City Hall's operations disclosed to the Wall Street Journal that discussions have been held between Adams and his senior advisers about the potential for campsites to appear in parks and other public spaces throughout the city's five boroughs.
City Hall spokesman Fabien Levy, when questioned about the possibility of tents occupying green spaces, did not directly address the plan. Instead, he stated that the mayor and his team were actively seeking solutions to the crisis, with no options being dismissed.
Mayor Adams has repeatedly emphasized the severity of the situation in New York City, underlining that the city is nearing its breaking point and running out of resources. "It's not 'if' people will be sleeping on the streets, it's when," he stated. "We are at full capacity. We have to sort of localize it as much as possible. We have to make sure that people have some type of restroom facilities, some type of shower network."
Adams recently announced that the city expects to have spent over $12 billion by 2025 to accommodate an estimated 100,000 undocumented immigrants, with the majority of this expenditure allocated for housing. Currently, most are housed in hotels due to an agreement between the Hotel Association of New York and the city.
The city allocated $1.4 billion to address the issue in Fiscal Year 2022, and a staggering $5 billion in FY2023. This figure surpasses the combined budgets of the city's Sanitation, Parks, and Fire Departments.
The mayor has consistently warned that the city is "running out of money, appropriate space, and personnel to care for [migrant] families," and has appealed to state and federal governments for aid.
Each month, over 10,000 undocumented immigrants arrive in the city, a consequence of the Biden administration's border policies, which have allowed approximately 7 million illegal border crossers since 2021. In contrast, less than 500,000 illegal border crossers were admitted during Trump's final year in office in 2020.
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