New shelters for male migrants in Midtown, Bushwick

Mayor Adams’ administration is opening two new migrant mega-shelters this month amid a seemingly never-ending influx of asylum seekers from the U.S. southern border.

The new sites, which will only house single men, are meant to replace the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center (HERRC) the administration has been operating out of a warehouse at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal since late January.

The HERRC on the Red Hook waterfront is set to shut down by the end of March, and city officials started informing migrants living there Monday afternoon that they will be transferred to the two new shelters over the next couple of weeks, according to a memo from Adams’ office obtained by the Daily News.

“We continue to do more than any other city in the nation, but as the number of asylum seekers continues to grow, we are in serious need of support from both our state and federal governments,” the mayor said in a statement, noting that more than 31,000 mostly Latin American migrants remain in the city’s care.

The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal site, which is winding down as a HERRC ahead of this spring’s cruise ship season, has had capacity to house about 1,000 people. The facility became a lightning rod for controversy after a group of migrants refused to be relocated there in January amid concern about housing conditions.

The new HERRC shelters will have a combined capacity for 1,200 people, according to Adams’ office.

The first one will be at 220 W. 42nd St. in Midtown.

The other one will be at 455 Jefferson St. in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Both facilities will be entirely indoors and operate out of vacant buildings that the city is converting into housing, an Adams official said. Food will be offered on site, as will services like health care, the official added.

The Adams administration has shelled out nearly $1 billion on housing, feeding and providing services for the tens of thousands of migrants who have arrived in the city since last spring. Most of them are fleeing poverty and violence in their Central and South American home countries in hopes of securing asylum in the U.S.

Molly Park, Adams’ acting commissioner of the Department of Social Services, testified before the City Council on Monday that her agency is housing 21,814 asylum seekers in city shelters. Another roughly 10,000 migrants live in the city’s HERRCs, which are operated by the city’s public hospital system and Office of Emergency Management.

Adams has for months pleaded with the feds and Gov. Hochul’s administration to help the city shoulder the massive financial burden of the migrant crisis. On March 3, the feds started accepting applications for some relief.