NEW YORK - Asylum seekers housed in several of the city’s “respite centers” have not been able to properly wash themselves for days because there are no showers at the newly-opened sites, according to people who’ve stayed there and migrant advocates.
Mayor Eric Adams’ administration started using respite centers last week to house migrants as the city’s traditional shelter and emergency hotel systems remain overcrowded. There are currently at least four operational sites, and Adams’ office has described them as “waiting rooms” where migrants should only stay for short periods while the city finds more suitable digs for them.
But several migrants housed at one of the sites, a vacant office building on W. 31st St. in Manhattan, told the Daily News on Tuesday they’ve been there for nearly a week, sleeping on narrow cots.
Among them were Victor and Marimar, a Venezuelan couple who said they have been sheltered at the W. 31st St. location since they arrived in New York five days ago. The couple, who only gave their first names, said there are no showers on site, and that they have not been able to properly wash for nearly two weeks, as they were on the road for six days before getting to New York from the Texas border.
The couple said most asylum seekers staying at the facility, which used to house Touro College, wash themselves by filling up bottles from bathroom sinks and pouring the water over their heads.
Leudel, another Venezuelan migrant staying at the ex-Touro site, said he hasn’t showered for weeks or gotten any assurances from the city about when he’ll be moved to another shelter.
“I haven’t been able to shower in a month, from the detention center, bus and this place,” he said in Spanish, referencing his journey to New York. “I don’t know when I will leave here.”
Adama Bah, a volunteer with the TLC NYC group that has helped welcome migrants at the city’s ports of entry since they first started arriving in waves last spring, said more than a dozen asylum seekers staying at two of the city’s other respite centers have told her they can’t access showers, either. Those two sites are operating out of the old Richard H. Hungerford School on Staten Island and a building in Astoria, Queens belonging to a shuttered church.
“Many of these people have been on three day journeys on buses to come here without showers, and now there are no showers when they arrive. It’s really bad,” Bah said of the migrants, most of whom are from Latin America and ended up in New York after crossing the U.S. southern border in hopes of seeking asylum.
The administration’s fourth known respite site is operating out of the gym of the NYPD’s old Police Academy on E. 20th St. in Manhattan.
Josh Goldfein, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society’s Homeless Rights Project, said he toured the Police Academy site earlier this month and that there are showers there. However, Goldfein said those showers are down “a very steep flight of stairs,” meaning some migrants are having a difficult time accessing them.
Goldfein said the lack of shower access at the other respite centers is “very concerning” from a legal perspective.
The city’s right-to-shelter mandate, which is underpinned by a decades-old court order and various state laws, requires that homeless shelters have certain basic amenities, including showers, private lockers and laundry access.
“Up until now, the fact that the city had people in different kinds of sites was not such a big deal because people were basically getting what they needed,” said Goldfein, whose group serves as a de facto watchdog on right-to-shelter compliance and has sued the city in the past over violations of the law. “But if the plan now is to keep people for extended periods of time in conditions that are not healthy, we’re going to have a problem.”
The mayor would not answer questions from The News about the lack of showers during a press conference Monday.
After the press conference, Adams spokesman Fabien Levy said he did not know “off the top of my head” whether the respite sites have showers.
But Levy said the administration will “always work to make sure that we’re following the law.”
Levy did not immediately respond to follow-up questions Tuesday.
Early last week, the administration opened one of its first respite centers in the gym of a public school in Coney Island, Brooklyn. The administration then also started preparing another five public school gyms across Brooklyn to become respite centers.
But the administration abruptly called off the public school gym plan and shuttled migrants already living at the Coney Island site to the old Touro College facility in Manhattan instead.
The about-face came after the initiative drew outrage from some elected officials and community leaders, who were concerned about students losing access to programming as a result of their gyms being used as housing.
“It took a lot of us by surprise,” Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said during a Tuesday morning budget hearing, adding that she could not understand why the administration acted in such a “knee-jerk” manner as it relates to the public school gym effort.
In response to the speaker’s comments, Jacques Jiha, Adams’ budget director, defended the administration’s actions.
“If we don’t find a place for them to sleep at night, we get sued,” Jiha said of the migrants.
Jiha’s concern about legal action appeared to be a reference to the right-to-shelter mandate, which at its root requires the city to provide a bed to anybody who needs one.
Earlier this month, Adams signed an executive order suspending provisions of the right-to-shelter ordinance, including a ban on placing children in congregate-style shelters.
The order came after the number of migrants housed in the city’s shelter and emergency hotel systems surged above 40,000. Hundreds more have arrived every day since, and Adams has said the city’s considering turning a number of unconventional sites into migrant housing, including a closed jail on Rikers Island, in order to accommodate all asylum seekers.
In addition to a lack of showers, Victor said sleeping conditions at the former Touro building are subpar.
“You see how tiny the beds are? And we’re sharing it,” Victor said while showing a picture he took of the narrow green cot he and his wife sleep on. “And it’s all mixed, women, men.”
