On Monday evening, South Bronx residents voiced their strong opposition—often shouting down members of the Adams administration—regarding the city’s plan to open a new 2,200-bed migrant shelter in a vacant warehouse at East 141st Street and Bruckner Boulevard. The city confirmed that the shelter, set to open in February, is a done deal.
Residents and city officials came to an impasse during the meeting of Community Board 1’s subcommittee on supportive and public housing, which was held in collaboration with the 40th Precinct Community Council. Dozens of concerned residents attended and lined up against the wall to address the group, joining with elected officials including Rep. Ritchie Torres who have already publicly opposed the shelter as an example of using the South Bronx as a “dumping ground.”
Monday night’s gathering at the Lincoln Hospital auditorium was far from the typical sparsely-attended committee meetings that sometimes do not reach quorum even among board members. The shelter meeting came with security check-ins, police presence at the doors and multiple news cameras.
Committee chair Daniel Barber called for respectful dialogue but said the planned shelter “wasn’t properly presented to the community.” The board, not the city, called the meeting and brought all parties to the table, he said.
“Who decides what goes where and who gets what?” Barber asked. “We outright say no.”
But the deal is already done, according to Deputy Mayor and Chief of Staff Camille Joseph Varlack, who told the upset crowd that Garner Property Management was already contracted to manage the site and plans to open in late February.
Varlack apologized for the lack of advance notice to residents. “Clearly, communication could’ve been better before this shelter was sited.”
Council Member Diana Ayala — who also faced tough questions from constituents about her initial recommendation of the vacant warehouse early in the migrant crisis — said since the contract was in place, there was little anyone could do to stop it.
Ayala said ideally, the administration should reach out to the community first, but in reality, “The mayor doesn’t need our permission to put a shelter anywhere,” she said. “By the time we all found out, this contract was already signed.”
Ayala emphasized that the shelter is temporary and that it cannot become permanent because the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) is prohibited from operating a facility of that size. Once the site is no longer needed, it will shut down, said Ayala.
But Borough President Vanessa Gibson expressed doubts that the shelter will only be used for a short time. Gibson said she asked the city to create 2,200 manufacturing jobs at the warehouse, which has sat vacant since for years, rather than open the shelter.
“City administration owes us more than this meeting tonight,” she said.
‘A very tight ship’
City officials offered new information about the planned shelter meant to ease concerns about public safety.
While board member Dalourny Nemorin said that most migrants do not commit crimes and that a new shelter in any neighborhood would likely meet opposition, she and others expressed concern about security given the large number of occupants at the new location, amid residents’ existing fears about community safety.
Rudy Guiliani from the Housing Recovery Operations Office (no relation to the former mayor) said the shelter will be run by an experienced management company with 24/7 cameras and security guards, metal detectors, a dedicated NYPD post, onsite support services and a curfew of 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. for residents. He also said the office is working to get Bronx-based organizations as subcontractors for services in an effort to integrate the shelter into the community.
“We try our hardest to run a very tight ship,” Guiliani said.
But shelters have come under scrutiny for allegedly bringing crime to a neighborhood.
For instance, Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr. said that the Hunts Point shelter known as The Living Room, which he said has fewer than 300 beds, has accounted for nearly 9,000 calls to 911 between 2022 and 2024.
Salamanca Jr. called the new shelter “irresponsible” and said it will “take police officers off our streets.” He has frequently protested shelters in the area, saying that the South Bronx’s is oversaturated.
Molly Schaeffer, director of asylum seeker operations, said the new site is still needed despite the city’s recent announcements of shelter closures throughout the city and a migrant population in steady decline over the past eight months.
Schaeffer said the new shelter was a “right-sizing exercise” as the city consolidates and closes tent facilities like the one at Randall’s Island.
“Nothing about this [location] is ideal” but the tents are even worse, added Varlack. “No one wants that.”
Furthermore, Schaeffer presented a pie chart showing that only 6% of the city’s migrant shelters are in the Bronx, compared to 37% in Manhattan, 35% in Queens and 21% in Brooklyn.
Though the crowd expressed skepticism at the calculation, “No one community has been spared from this all-city response,” Schaeffer said.
Residents speak out
The meeting was largely civil, but South Bronx residents pulled no punches in expressing their unequivocal opposition to the shelter and frustration at the lack of communication from the city.
People lined up against the wall to address the group, and several residents said they already felt unsafe in their neighborhoods and that the shelter does nothing to assuage those concerns.
Mike Young, who said he is a father, husband and director of the Padre Plaza Community Garden, asked if the migrants coming to the new shelter have been screened.
“Do we know who the rapists are? Do we know who the child molesters are?” he asked. “When my daughter walks down the street, do I have to follow with a baseball bat?”
Another resident agreed the South Bronx already feels like a “very different climate” in terms of safety. “You can’t walk around without having a brass knuckle.”
One woman said she had worked as an artist in the Port Morris neighborhood for nine years and never worried much about her safety. But with the new shelter, “I am now terrified,” she said.
“Will there be a person escorting me to the subway? If not, I can’t be here,” she said, asking for the exact date of the shelter’s opening so she can leave her current space.
Varlack emphasized that the federal government, not the city, handles immigration and any potential vetting process. Schaeffer said most of the migrants coming to the new shelter are eligible to work, which will give them a purpose in the community.
This information did little to calm residents, many of whom seem to have left the meeting unsatisfied.
The Bronx Times spoke with a resident who declined to give her name but said she worked with children in the South Bronx. To her, the meeting was fruitless.
“You’re just telling us what we don’t want to hear,” she said. “‘Too late, suck it up.’ We’re worried about this.”
The resident said she already worries constantly about the children in her care. “We just lost a boy going to school. What’s next?” she said, referring to 14-year-old Caleb Rijos, who was randomly stabbed to death on East 138th Street on Jan. 10.
Pedro Suarez, director of the Third Avenue Business Improvement District, told the crowd that although the new shelter is not in his catchment area, it will still impact the surrounding community.
He recommended allocating funds to support the area, saying the decision to site the shelter in the South Bronx “has to come with commitments.” And the curfew may not be enough to stop crime, said Suarez.
“It’s what happens when people are going to school and work, not just 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.,” he said. “This community’s very much on a precipice right now.”
Gabriel DeJesus, president of the 40th Precinct Community Council, told the Bronx Times that the meeting was “not productive at all.”
In a statement on social media after the meeting, the precinct council said the plan overburdens a community already inundated with drug activity, violence and “emotionally disturbed persons.”
The precinct council proposes in that statement “smaller, decentralized shelters with comprehensive support services” along with workforce development opportunities. Above all, the statement said, “Transparency in the planning and implementation of such projects is not optional — it is a must.”
Varlack said although the administration got off to a bad start, it remained committed to “regular conversations with the community” going forward. Guiliani said once the site is open, it will have a publicly-available email address and phone number for residents to report any issues.
As the plan drives forward, Barber echoed the need for open communication and called on residents to organize and continue opposing it, even if the ink is already dried.
“Let this be a lesson learned to the Adams administration and every administration — it’s the voice of the people that counts.”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
