What we know about New York City's first encampment for asylum seekers

New York City opened its first temporary encampment for asylum seekers Wednesday on Randall’s Island. Here’s what we know about the complex and plans for other “Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers.”

Where is it?

The Icahn Stadium parking lot.

Who’s there?

Single male asylum seekers, initially up to 500, but there's a capacity for 1,000, according to officials. They are among an influx of asylum seekers from Central and South America, sent to New York by way of Texas.

What about women and children?

The city is also providing shelter for some 200 families with young children in the Row Hotel in Midtown, and the city is looking into other locations for single women. Thousands of asylum seekers are also being housed in the city’s traditional shelter system.

What’s going on at the centers?

The camps have been billed as temporary stops, where asylum seekers can receive humanitarian aid and help getting to their next destination, whether it be a local homeless shelter or another city. The city said the Port Authority Bus Terminal, where buses carrying asylum seekers typically arrive, is ill-suited for welcoming the new arrivals and providing them with assistance.

How long will people stay at the Randall’s Island encampment?

Up to four days, officials have said. But officials stopped short of putting a hard limit on the number of days.

Why not somewhere indoors?

Officials have said there’s no indoor space large enough to accommodate a large encampment. Some City Council members have objected to the use of tents or encampments, saying the city should rely instead on indoor facilities, like vacant hotels.

What does the Randall’s Island encampment look like?

The 84,400-square-foot facility – actually a complex of mostly connected tents – includes rooms for caseworkers to meet with asylum seekers, a dining hall with a buffet, and refrigerator space stocked with beverages. There’s also a recreation room with wifi, televisions, video game consoles, popcorn machines, ping pong and Foosball tables, board games, landline phones and charging stations.

Bathroom trailers line the perimeter; 88 bathrooms and showers are located on the site, officials said. Nearby, a laundry facility houses more than 20 washers and dryers. Isolation trailers are on site to house asylum seekers who test positive for COVID-19 or other communicable diseases.

Two separate sleeping areas are filled with dozens of rows of green cots, each with a pillow, folded blanket, a package of sheets, and a plastic bag with a towel.

Will the encampment hold up in bad weather?

HVAC units maintain a 70-degrees temperature in the temporary structures, which are built to withstand inclement weather and 90 mile-per-hour winds. (The city calls the Randall’s Island site a “Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center,” but it is more often referred to as a “tent city.”)

What about flooding?

The parking lot is in a flood zone, according to the city’s official coastal flood maps, at “high risk” of flooding by the water and “moderate risk” further inland. A tropical storm nearly a decade ago transformed concert fields for the annual Governors Ball music festival into mud pits.

But the parking lot has a 3-foot slope from top to bottom, so officials said rainwater will run underneath the buildings.

How will asylum seekers travel to and from the camp?

Buses will transport asylum seekers to the camp after they arrive at the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

The M35 bus runs north to south across the island to the corner of Lexington Avenue and 125th Street in Harlem, near a subway stop for the 4, 5, and 6 trains. The bus stops on the island from about 5:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. The city is also coordinating with the state-run MTA to add bus service.

Will staff be able to communicate with the mostly Spanish-speaking asylum seekers?

The city said 90% of the caseworkers hired to serve asylum seekers at the Randall’s Island camp will be able to speak Spanish.

How much did it cost?

The city has spent $325,000 to build the new Randall’s Island complex – and roughly the same amount to initially site the camp at Orchard Beach. That site was scrapped after it was swamped during a weekend rainstorm.

The operating costs are still unknown.

How many centers will there be?

The city has opened two centers so far— the Randall’s Island encampment for single men and the Row Hotel facility for families. Officials have said they expect to add more.

Do the centers violate the city’s right-to-shelter rules?

Adams and local agency officials argue that the new emergency relief centers for asylum seekers are separate from the city’s shelter system – and not subject to the same court-mandated standards.

Nonetheless, the centers meet some standards, like providing clean linens.

But Legal Aid staff attorney Josh Goldfein said set-up of the Randall’s Island camp doesn’t appear to meet some of the court-mandated standards for city shelters — like the rule that beds must be at least 3 feet apart. At the camp, each cot is positioned end-to-end in each row.

How many asylum seekers have arrived so far?

The city said more than 19,000 asylum seekers have arrived in recent months, often just a few days after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Where are they coming from?

Border state governors, like Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, are busing migrants to New York and other Democrat-run cities in what’s been decried as a “political stunt.” Abbott said he chose New York City because he wants to test how much it lives up to being a “sanctuary city.”

The migrants await court hearings where a judge will decide whether to grant them asylum, or permission to remain in the country long term because they fear persecution in their home countries. Many new arrivals in New York City are fleeing poverty and political violence in Venezuela, officials said.

Where are they going after they arrive in NYC?

About a third of asylum seekers in each bus arriving at the Port Authority want to travel to other cities; most end up in the city’s homeless shelter system.

How are they getting to other cities?

Team T.L.C., a local community group with volunteers stationed at the Port Authority, has spent more than $85,000 to help asylum seekers secure plane, train, and bus tickets.

Have the asylum seekers strained the city’s shelter system?

According to the city, yes, though critics contend the shelter system was overburdened before the influx of asylum seekers. The Department of Homeless Services has opened 42 emergency shelters, mostly in hotels, to accommodate a 30% spike in the shelter population in the last six months. The city has denied beds to asylum seekers on multiple occasions, in apparent violation of the right-to-shelter rule.

Is the federal government going to help?

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office is pushing for federal aid for shelter and other asylum seeker services. They’re eyeing funding streams in the upcoming federal budget, like the Federal Emergency Management’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program and Housing and Urban Development community block grants.

How else is the city trying to house asylum seekers?

A new homeless shelter intake center recently opened — specifically for asylum seekers— with rooms reserved for short-term stays. Adams has also promised other plans to be unveiled in the coming weeks: a program for New Yorkers to host asylum seekers and the homeless, and a plan to “fast-track” New Yorkers who have been long been homeless into permanent housing.

The administration is also investigating other options to temporarily house asylum seekers – like cruise ships and churches.

This article has been updated with new information.