NYC to close Floyd Bennett Field migrant shelter, over a dozen other sites

Mayor Eric Adams’ office announced Tuesday that the city will close the controversial migrant shelter at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field, along with numerous other sites, over the next couple of months amid a rapid decline in new arrivals.

The 2,000-bed tent shelter, which sits on a decommissioned federal airfield in the Marine Park section of Brooklyn, is set to close by Jan. 15, according to City Hall. The tents will be dismantled after the last migrants depart, and the city and state’s lease of the land with the federal government will expire in March.

The site has been online since last November and housed 1,840 individuals as of Nov. 24.

According to City Hall, the latest shelter closures were spurred by the migrant shelter census dropping to 57,000—the lowest it has been in 17 months—following a 22-week decline in the population.

The mayor attributed the decrease to his administration’s “smart management” of the migrant influx, which he said includes the city’s 30-and-60-day shelter limits, case management and buying newcomers plane tickets to other locations of their choice.

Cots inside the makeshift shelter for migrants erected on the grounds of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens on Aug. 15, 2023.Photo by Dean Moses

“Thanks to our smart management strategies, we’ve turned the corner, and this additional slate of shelter closures we’re announcing today is even more proof that we’re managing this crisis better than any other city in the nation,” Adams said. “We’re going to continue looking for more sites to consolidate and close, and more opportunities to save taxpayer money, as we continue to successfully manage this response.”

Adams added that President Biden’s June executive orders also helped reduce the shelter population by ebbing the flow of migrants arriving in the city.

The 25 shelters the city announced that have closed or will close mark the latest in a series of recent moves by the Adams administration to scale back its sprawling operation to house new arrivals. The list includes the previously revealed closure of the large-scale Randall’s Island shelter, which housed 3,000 single adults and will shutter in February.

The list includes 15 shelters in the five boroughs and another 10 upstate. According to mayoral spokesperson Liz Garcia, 11 of the city shelters have already closed.

Controversy over Floyd Bennett shelter

Migrants at Floyd Bennett Field.Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Since opening last year, Floyd Bennett has been marred by controversy. It sparked fierce protests from Republican lawmakers and area residents and criticism from immigrant advocates.

Even before the site officially opened, a group of mostly Republican pols sued to prevent the city from housing migrants on the decommissioned airfield. However, the suit was tossed by a state judge in Brooklyn earlier this year.

“As I’ve said from the beginning, turning our federal parks into encampments for unvetted migrants from all over the world is unfair to the surrounding community and taxpayers who have been forced to foot the bill for this madness,” US Rep. Nicole Mallitakis (R-Staten Island), who was a party to the lawsuit, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, advocates, such as the Legal Aid Society and Coalition for the Homeless, have long sounded alarm bells that the facility’s structure and location were unsafe for families with children. In a statement, the groups said that while they “welcome” Floyd Bennett’s closure, they are worried it could disrupt the families living there.

“Floyd Bennett Field – a semi-congregate facility where families with children live in tents on an unused airfield mired in a flood zone, miles from schools, and other services – was always the wrong location to shelter vulnerable families with young children,” the groups said in a statement.

News of the Floyd Bennett closure comes a little over a month before President-elect Donald Trump will take office on Jan. 20. In the lead-up to his inauguration, immigrant and homeless advocates have raised concerns that large-scale shelters like Floyd Bennett could be the target of the incoming president’s mass deportation efforts.

“Lastly, in preparation for the president-elect’s plans to implement mass deportations nationwide, we are closely monitoring these closures and transfers to ensure new arrivals’ access to shelter and protection from any potential federal immigration enforcement dragnets,” Legal Aid and Coalition for the Homeless said.