NYC turns Upper West Side college dorms into migrant shelters; many details murky

Two college dormitories on the Upper West Side are being turned into mega shelters for migrants, Mayor Adams announced Monday — though many details about the sites were not immediately clear, including what will happen to a handful of New Yorkers who live there permanently.

The Stratford Arms dorm on 70th St. and The Amsterdam dorm on 85th St. are both owned by the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, and typically house students from the arts college during the spring and fall semesters.

With most students away for summer break, Adams said Monday afternoon the two dorms will “soon” open as Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers, or HERRCs, with capacity to house more than 800 migrants in a combined 516 rooms. The dorms will accommodate adult migrant families and single women, and, as at other HERRCs, social services, food and other amenities will be available on site.

What was not immediately clear, however, is for how long Adams’ administration will be able to shelter migrants at the sites. According to American Musical and Dramatic Academy’s calendar, the fall semester starts Oct. 23, and local City Councilwoman Gale Brewer said she assumes the college will need its dorms back for students by then.

A spokesman for the college referred all questions about the dorms to Adams’ office.

Adams spokesman Fabien Levy said the administration plans to house migrants at the Stratford Arms and The Amsterdam for as long as possible, but declined to say if the HERRC operations will have to wind down by a certain date.

Brewer, a Democrat, said there are also a handful of people who live permanently at both locations. She said she has yet to get an answer from Adams’ administration about what will happen to those individuals once the dorms open as HERRCs.

“They survive the students; I assume they’ll survive this, too,” Brewer told the Daily News of the permanent tenants. “Still, you have to be very conscious about those people’s needs, too.”

Levy would not say what the administration is doing to make sure the permanent tenants’ accommodations aren’t disrupted.

The two new HERRCs are part of a network of more than 170 emergency housing facilities the administration has opened to shelter migrants as the traditional shelter system remains at capacity, housing more than 80,000 people, according to Department of Social Services data.

According to data from Adams’ office, more than 47,000 asylum seekers, most of them from Latin America, remain in city shelters and emergency housing facilities.

In his statement, Adams reiterated his call for more migrant-related aid from the federal government, which has committed less than $145 million to the city so far. According to Adams’ budget advisers, the city has already spent more than $1 billion on the migrant crisis and is on track to spend more than $4 billion by next summer.

“New York City is facing a humanitarian crisis unlike any other before,” Adams said. “With more than 47,000 asylum seekers still in the city’s care and thousands continuing to arrive each week, we need a national decompression strategy to handle this national issue.”