Floyd Bennett Field opens to migrants as city copes with crisis

New York City has officially opened a temporary housing center for migrants at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, a former federally owned military base, amid concerns that the facility was a potential flooding and fire hazard.

Meanwhile, as the migrant crisis continues to intensify, the city has also established a “reticketing center” in Manhattan where it will provide newly arrived migrants with a free, one-way airline ticket out of town.

A city spokeswoman said migrants are expected to move into the Brooklyn facility in the coming days although none had been brought there as of Tuesday.

The facility has four main areas: an intake or arrival tent where individuals are provided with immediate medical care and offered vaccinations; a cafeteria and dining area that is open round-the-clock; bathroom and shower trailers; and dormitories that have sleeping areas with cots for adults, pack 'n’ plays for children and have power and individual lighting.

The sprawling state-funded migrant shelter site, located on a Marine Park airfield, will initially house 500 individuals before eventually expanding to up to 2,000 family members. 

Migrants will be able to remain at the new center for just 60 days as the city has limited how much time they're permitted to stay in a city shelter.

And officials expect the new shelter to fill up quickly as roughly 4,000 migrants are arriving in the city daily.

"We're constantly looking at new spaces," New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference Tuesday in Manhattan. "But it's a space issue and it's an economic issue."

The state is footing the bill for the Floyd Bennett shelter at a monthly rent of $1.7 million or just over $20 million for the one-year lease term. But Gov. Kathy Hochul Monday said the state cannot fund the housing of migrants forever.

"We're approaching $2 billion this year. That's $1 billion more than anticipated," Hochul said. "As my budget director said, that rate is unsustainable."

The shelter opened despite neighborhood protests, and some lawmakers are criticizing the site as unsafe,

City Councilwoman Joann Ariola, a Queens Republican, said on social media that Floyd Bennett is in a flood zone and lacks nearby fire hydrants.

"The situation is even more of a disaster than I thought," Ariola posted on X. "There is no plan at all in place for where these children will go to school. There is no number for how many children are coming. Families will need to trudge through snow to go to the bathroom trailers during the winter."

Adams and other city officials Tuesday insist the location is safe, saying in extreme weather events, the migrants can be moved elsewhere. They said they are working to improve fire safety but add that they are operating with limited options as the city is essentially out of space to house migrants.

City officials, meanwhile, are steering migrants toward a voluntary reticketing center where they can secure a free one-way plane ticket anywhere in the world, including their country of origin or locales where they have family members.

"The reticketing center is allowing them to go to locations that they want to go," Adams said Tuesday. "Some people actually want to go back to their country of origin because they've realized that when you come to New York, you're not automatically staying in a five-star hotel. You're not automatically going to find a job. And now the reality has settled in."

An Adams spokeswoman did not have data on how many migrants have taken the city up on its offer.

Since the spring of 2022, the city has processed more than 130,000 asylum-seekers and is currently housing more than 65,000 migrants at more than 200 shelters across the five boroughs.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.