A controversial 2,200-bed migrant men’s shelter has opened its doors in the South Bronx — to the widespread condemnation of residents, merchants and local officials.
The first migrants began arriving at the converted storage facility on East 141st Street over the weekend as part of a push by City Hall to consolidate the dwindling number of asylum-seekers from shuttering massive shelters in other boroughs, including the tent cities on Randall’s Island and at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field, as well as the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan.
And the Bronx isn’t happy about it.
“It’s outrageous,” a resident told The Post on Tuesday.
“In all my years of living in this neighborhood, this has been the biggest let-down. Nobody that lived here asked for this. There was no vote, no option, no reason given to residents here.”
Judy Kudlow, who owns an art studio in the neighborhood, said, “I think it could become unsafe — that’s my worst fear.
“I don’t know that, but 2,200 men all together with nothing to do no matter how nice they are is probably no one’s Idea of a good idea,” she said.
“There’s probably about a dozen men out there now waiting to get in,” Kudlow said.
“I’m just on a wait-and-see. If it becomes a problem, my husband won’t let me come up here anymore because he doesn’t want that and I’ll have to find another place.”
City officials said many of the migrants moving to the new facility were previously living at the troubled Randall’s Island site, where several outbursts of violence raised serious security concerns.
The choice of relocating them to the Bronx site — which is just around the corner from “The Hub,” one of the Big Apple’s most drug-addled strips — sparked protests before the doors were even open.
But Mayor Eric Adams moved ahead with the plan, with sources saying at least 200 more migrants arrived at the new shelter Tuesday alone, most of them arriving by subway.
Among those joining the chorus of opposition was Democratic Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson.
“The administration’s decision to open a migrant shelter in our borough without addressing the pressing questions and concerns of our community is unacceptable,” Gibson said in a statement.
“The decision was imposed with minimal engagement and no meaningful conversations with those who will be directly affected,” she said.
Gibson said she still needs to know what steps, if any, the NYPD will be taking to improve public safety in the area and whether President Trump’s nationwide migrant crackdown will lead to raids at the shelter.
A City Hall rep said the facility opened Saturday and that about 300 migrants had moved in so far.
The Adams administration has maintained in recent weeks that it is a “temporary” shelter — but has not said how long its occupants’ stays would be, saying only that it will remain as long as there is a need.
The city also said that, while the surge of migrants that begun flooding into the five boroughs in 2022 has begun to wane, there are still about 44,000 asylum-seekers being housed in shelters and hotels.
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