New York mayor Eric Adams is discouraging asylum seekers from coming to the Big Apple by emphasizing the city’s expensive cost of living.
The mayor’s office released flyers Wednesday asking asylum seekers to consider cities other than New York when choosing where to settle in the country. The flyers, which will be handed out to migrants at the border, warn that “cost of food, transportation, and other necessities in NYC is the highest in the United States.” They also say there is no guarantee of “shelter and services to new arrivals.”
In addition to the flyers, Adams announced a new mayoral directive Wednesday that requires single, adult migrants to reapply to stay in the city’s shelter system after sixty days if they cannot find alternative housing. Last year, the average shelter stay for a single adult was 509 days. Adams said the new rule will open up spaces for children and families, some of whom are currently living on the streets.
“This is the only way we can make critically needed space for families and children. We don’t want to reach the point, and we won’t reach the point where families and children are living on our streets, like you’re seeing in other municipalities.” Adams said. “For the sake of our city, state and country, the sake of those who have arrived and who will continue to arrive, we will become committed and dedicated like we have.”
This is not the first time Adams has made attempts to curb the flow of migrants. In May, his administration began fighting a forty-year-old law that guarantees a right to shelter within New York City. After opening more than 150 emergency shelters and putting up migrants in hotels across the city, the housing demands were expected to far exceed the city’s $4.3 billion budget for the crisis.
“This is one of the most responsible things any leader can do when they realize the system is buckling and we want to prevent it from collapsing,” Adams said about suspending the law.
