Criticizes City’s Decision To Build Tent City In The Bronx : Immigration Committee Chair Council Member Shahana Hanif

Usanewsonline.com desk, Brooklyn, NY: In response to news of the planned “Humanitarian Emergency Response and Release Centers” in the Bronx, Council Member Hanif released the following statement.

“Our City is facing a mounting crisis. Many agencies are working around the clock to deliver care to the thousands of asylum seekers who have come through the Port Authority, with more and more arriving each week. But the decision to build what can only be described as a refugee camp is deeply distributing.

Last week, the Mayor’s team made comments about needing to reassess the City’s Right to Shelter, which is enshrined in state law. Today’s announcement is a clear product of the Adams Administration’s goal to circumvent this essential right. Materials provided by the Administration show that the conditions of the ‘Humanitarian Emergency Response and Release Centers’ will inevitably fail to meet the bare minimum standards provided by the shelter system. We have room in our shelter system, as well as thousands of empty apartments and hotel rooms, but instead, this Mayor would prefer people to sleep in outdoor tents and trailers.

Having been at Port Authority many mornings welcoming asylum seekers, I understand that some arriving do require a transient space while they await connections either here in our City or elsewhere. But as Chair of the Immigration Committee, I have serious logistical concerns about the proposed facility. I struggle to understand why the City is committing to spend millions on constructing a tent city, as well as associated transportation costs, when we have dozens of existing facilities that could be repurposed during this crisis.

Additionally, the creation of this facility is deeply misguided and has troubling implications. For thousands of people who do not have connections in the United States, remaining in New York City is, at times, the best option. With no real plan for how to assist those thousands of people with finding long-term housing options, I fear this facility will become a permanent refugee camp.

When our City was gripped by COVID-19 and the vaccination program began, mass sites were created almost overnight to serve the needs of  New Yorkers. But now that it’s immigrant people of color fleeing violence and economic uncertainty, they are being shipped off to a tent complex built in a beach parking lot. We have the resources and facilities to house every single asylum seeker humanely and provide them the logistical support to move on to their next destination. We do not need to create an outdoor refugee camp to manage this crisis.

I look forward to questioning the Office of Emergency Management about this proposed facility at the Immigration Committee hearing on Friday, September 30th at 1 pm.”

About Council Member Shahana Hanif: Council Member Shahana Hanif is the newly elected Council Member for Brooklyn’s 39th District and Chair of the Council’s Immigration Committee. Born and raised in Kensington, Brooklyn, she is the daughter of two Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants. She is a product of public schools, having attended P.S. 230 and Brooklyn College, and is an activist, community organizer, and public servant. Before being elected to office, she served as the Director of Organizing and Community Engagement in Former Council Member, now Comptroller, Brad Lander’s office, where she led grassroots initiatives like Participatory Budgeting. Shahana is the first Muslim woman ever elected to the New York City Council and the first woman Council Member for the 39th District.