A New York City shelter with a $10m contract to house female migrants and their families is accused of allowing those who lived there to be sexually harassed and abused for months before reporting the abuse to officials.
Residents told The City that while they were living in a converted hotel in Sunset Park, they were propositioned for sex, harassed with inappropriate remarks, and threatened with retaliation over potential complaints.
The abuse was allegedly perpetrated by staff members. One employee allegedly called a Venezuelan asylum seeker a sexist epithet, and that same employee allegedly waved a wad of cash at another Venezuelan asylum-seeker, suggesting he wanted to pay her for sex.
“No one was going to believe me,” one of the migrants told The City in Spanish. “I didn’t say anything.”
During an alleged meeting with shelter leadership, one of the migrants making allegations was reportedly told she was wearing too short of shorts, and the employee who allegedly harassed her reportedly remained with the shelter afterwards for a time despite the complaints.
Despite city rules requiring the New York Department of Homeless Services to be alerted of suspected mistreatment within 24 hours, the alleged misconduct continued for months unreported. Eventually, the executive director of the 163rd Street Improvement Council, which oversees the shelter, alerted officials at the Department of Homeland Security.
A top employee at the shelter has been suspended pending a review of the allegations by an outside law firm, according to the New York Department of Social Services. The city’s Department of investigation is also investigating the shelter, based in a rented out GLo hotel.
The Independent has contacted 163rd Street Improvement Council as well as the employee who has been suspended for comment.
New York has spent recent months ramping up its shelter capacity as it handles an increase in migrants arriving in the city.
As of last week, the city’s shelter population reached nearly 100,000, double in size since last year, with about 48,700 of those people being asylum seekers, according to The New York Post. The city is paying an estimated $7.9m a day to house them.
The wave of migration, driven by everything from political crises in Venezuela, to red-state governors intentionally bussing migrants to New York as a political stunt, to the end of draconian Trump-era immigration policies like Title 42 that temporarily depressed migration, has led to the city seeking emergency shelter contracts with social service providers, including some who haven’t previously overseen family shelters.
In October of 2022, New York City mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency regarding migration.
