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Hochul announces Floyd Bennett Field to house NYC asylum seekers

The announcement comes as a huge development in both the city and state's quest to find additional space to house asylum seekers.

Faith Graham and Rob Taub

Aug 22, 2023, 9:39 AM

Updated 487 days ago

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Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Monday that Floyd Bennett Field has been given permission to begin housing thousands of asylum seekers.
The announcement comes as a huge development in both the city and state's quest to find additional space to house asylum seekers as the newly opened centers at Randall's Island and Creedmoor Psychiatric Center already filling up. Hochul says the Biden administration has provided them with a tentative contract. Once the final agreement is signed, they'll work with the city to construct the relief center, with the plan for the space to house more than 2,000 migrants.
"This site will be critical in the interim for the city of New York to provide humanitarian aid, as we work collectively to get people on the path to asylum seeker status and legal work,” said Hochul.
Hochul also announced the state is making a $20 million investment to speed up the casework filing process for more than 30,000 migrants. The goal is to expedite their exit out of the shelter after New York City recently welcomed more than 100,000 migrants since the spring of last year.
Mayor Eric Adams says he supports the project but says that more needs to be done like a federal declaration of emergency and a national and state decompression strategy.