NYC to Close Roosevelt Hotel Migrant Shelter by June

(TJV) Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday that the Roosevelt Hotel migrant shelter and arrival center in Midtown will shut down by June. The hotel has played a key role in the city’s response to the influx of asylum seekers, serving as the main intake center where most migrants have applied for shelter. Since the spring of 2022, more than 173,000 of the 232,000 migrants who passed through New York City’s shelter system have been processed at the hotel.

Originally opened in May 2023 during a surge that saw 4,000 migrants arriving weekly, the Roosevelt Hotel was dubbed the “new Ellis Island.” It served as a hub where new arrivals could apply for shelter, receive medical screenings, or get transportation to other destinations. The site became a widely recognized symbol of the city’s migrant crisis in the summer of 2023, when large crowds of migrants gathered outside, with many sleeping on sidewalks while waiting for shelter placements.

“Today marks another milestone in demonstrating the immense progress we have achieved in turning the corner on an unprecedented international humanitarian effort,” Adams said in a statement, emphasizing the hotel’s critical role in managing the city’s response.

As of last week, the Roosevelt Hotel was housing 2,852 migrants, according to City Hall spokesperson Liz Garcia. Moving forward, the intake process and other services provided at the hotel will be absorbed into different parts of the city’s shelter system, City Hall confirmed.

The Roosevelt Hotel is among 53 shelters the city plans to close by June, with 36 already shut down in recent months. It is one of nine large shelters—each housing over 1,000 people—that the Adams administration recently announced would close in the coming months.

To accommodate displaced individuals, the city recently opened a new 2,200-bed shelter for men in the South Bronx. The Roosevelt Hotel’s closure comes as the number of arriving migrants seeking shelter in New York City has steadily declined for over seven months. Currently, an average of 350 migrants per week apply for shelter, significantly lower than previous numbers, according to Adams.