Migrant Shelter on Randalls Island Will Close in February, Adams Says

New York City will close a sprawling tent shelter that houses thousands of migrants on Randall’s Island, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Wednesday.The shelter will close at the end of February, the mayor’s office said in a news release, noting that the number of asylum seekers in city shelters has decreased for 14 consecutive weeks and is now at its lowest point in over a year.“We’re not scrambling every day to open new shelters — we’re talking about closing them,” Mr.Adams said in the release.As more than 210,000 migrants have come through the city’s shelter system since 2022, straining its capacity, officials have worked to reduce the number of people who remain in the city’s care, including by limiting shelter stays to 30 or 60 days.

The city was sheltering 60,600 migrants as of this week.The giant tent complex, built atop recreational fields on Randall’s Island, was at one point the city’s largest migrant shelter, housing more than 3,000 adults.But it had also become a pressing source of concern.The Randall’s Island Park Alliance, a nonprofit organization that helps maintain the island, had threatened to sue the city after the shelter was erected, arguing that it was an illegal takeover of public parkland.“The administration heard our concerns, and we appreciate them working with us on this issue,” Deborah Maher, the president of the alliance, said in a statement on Wednesday.

“We look forward to working with NYC Parks to restore this important resource, and welcoming back thousands of children from across the city to their newly restored sports fields as soon as possible.”Reports of petty thefts and brawls among migrants have been common inside the shelter, where migrants sleep in rows of back-to-back military cots.The grounds outside the shelter also became the site of occasional violence, including a stabbing in August and a shooting in July that left one Venezuelan mother dead and injured two other migrants.A makeshift encamp...