By Dan Murphy
NYC Mayor Eric Adams and his administration have booked 100 rooms at the Ramada Inn in Yonkers, to house an overflow of migrants coming to NYC from the Mexico-Texas border. As of Saturday, May 13, the migrants have not yet arrived.
Mayor Mike Spano said that the lack of information coming from Mayor Adams is unacceptable. “Yonkers is a City of immigrants and there’s no City that has been more welcoming to them. We are compassionate to the plight of asylum seekers and the City of Yonkers will always step up to aid others in need. However, the sheer lack of communication and planning from New York City on this crucial matter is unacceptable.
“We are being told families will be housed here for at least a year, yet Yonkers is not being provided the resources on how to deal with the additional schooling, public safety and health services needed to assist these individuals. It is unfair to the asylum seekers and to our City.
“I am calling on and standing at the ready to work with the Governor, New York City’s Mayor, the County Executive, our State Delegation and Yonkers City Council to come up with a plan and the funding needed to benefit our City and our new arrivals. This nationwide crisis needs to be handled in a proactive, prepared, team approach.”
“We’re willing to do our part, but we need a better plan and the better plan here is any plan, because there is no plan,” said Spano.
Republican City Councilman and Mayoral candidate Anthony Merante issued the following statement. “Without giving any notice of his intentions Adams decided to ship his migrants to Yonkers with no coordination with the City. This is a complete outrage! Adams was given one billion dollars by New York State to resolve his problem and he dumps it on Yonkers with no long-term plan or statement on the numbers of migrants coming or how long they will be staying.
“There are way too many inconsistencies in what is dripping out of Adams office. As the Councilmember in District 6 where the Ramada is located, I’m urging Mayor Spano to take forceful action and file a lawsuit to seek an injunction against the Ramada based on City code and certificate of occupancy violations. The hotel is permitted for temporary shelter not permanent housing.
“Furthermore, these new arrivals must be identified, this is a security issue. We must know who they are and their whereabouts to protect our community,” stated Merante.
If the cost of each room is $100, 100 rooms would cost $10,000 per day. If 350 days are booked, the total amount received by the owners is $3.5 Million.
