City officials are preparing an old storage facility in the South Bronx to hold up to 2,200 migrant men from the troubled tent city on Randall's Island — all while bragging that the asylum-seeker crisis is waning.
It is located near “The Hub” – one of the most drug-ridden areas in the Big Apple.
“Wrong move!” “You need to work with the people who are already here,” Cyrine Bilal, a neighborhood resident, told the newspaper. “We have ongoing issues. Why Bronx? Why choose Bronx?”
“It would be dangerous,” the 21-year-old videographer said. “We don't know who these people are. We're not talking about 10 people. We're talking about thousands. That's a lot.”
Plans — which received final approval last month — call for the shelter to open next month at 825 E. 141st St. to house migrant men who have been in the troubled tent city on Randall's Island, records show.
Records show the city will pay between $250,000 to $340,000 to rehabilitate the building after agreeing to an emergency contract that did not go through the standard bidding process.
The city has had to scramble to find space for migrants streaming into the city since 2022, converting old schools and churches into shelters and erecting tent cities on Randall's Island and at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn — which the city closed over the weekend. .
Word of the plan comes after City Hall said the flow of migrants into the five boroughs has slowed significantly as the number of asylum seekers in city shelters declines.
City officials announced in October that the massive Randall's Island camp — which sources said had become a breeding ground for the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua — would be closed, and made a similar announcement about dismantling another tent city at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.
Officials said the displaced migrants would be transferred to other shelters.
They neglected to mention the new Bronx facility, which came as a surprise to area merchants and residents, who said crime had already become a concern in the borough without the influx of immigrants.
Problems in the area include The Hub, a commercial extension of the town exposed by The Post where addicts shoot out in the open and dealers sell their wares without fear of reprisal.
“Instead of dismantling the open-air drug markets in the center, the city is treating the South Bronx as a dumping ground for an endless stream of shelters,” said Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.).
“The Bronx is treated differently than the rest of the city,” Torres said. “We are treated like a second-class city in New York City.”
According to city statistics, nearly 230,000 migrants have been housed in the city's taxpayer-funded shelters since the influx of migrants began in 2022, and there are now just over 50,000 still in the system.
For Bronx locals, the plan to shelter migrants in their borough doesn't seem to be diminishing.
“I had no idea,” a local store manager told The Post. “We are worried. We have concerns in general because there are people stuck on the streets and there have been reports of thefts. It will get worse.
“I think they're throwing it in the shade on the edge of the Bronx where they think people won't be affected,” said the man, who asked to remain anonymous. “I am concerned about the safety of our female workers. I may have to change some shifts.”
A woman working the early morning shift in the neighborhood cited the recent arson of a sleeping New Jersey woman on a Brooklyn subway train — apparently at the hands of an illegal immigrant.
“That right scares me,” she said. “You'll see a bunch of people hanging out, drinking and doing things, and you have to walk past them to get on the train. We work in a cul-de-sac and there are no police here.
“This will create more problems,” she added. “I think it's going to get more violent.”
A local maintenance worker said the area was already dangerous without a new shelter for migrants.
“It's a dead end,” he said. “People don't go out, they stay inside. They are afraid. They rob you here. You don't see anyone walking around here at night.”
In an email Tuesday, a City Hall representative said the shelter was a “temporary step” as officials continue to reduce the number of sites used to house migrants.
“Thanks to our strong management of this unprecedented humanitarian crisis, New York City has seen the population in our emergency shelter system decline for six consecutive months, allowing us to close 46 migrant shelters within one year,” the representative said.
They said this would save taxpayers $2.8 billion.
The city had 263 shelters in operation at the height of the migrant crisis, and 190 are now operational.
