NEW YORK MAYOR DECLARES MIGRANT EMERGENCY AS HOMELESSNESS HITS RECORD LEVELS

As the number of people jammed into New York City's overcrowded shelters for the homeless reached a record due to the inflow of thousands of migrants from Latin America, Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency on Friday.

He urged the federal government to permit recently arrived asylum seekers to work legally and limit the northward flow of migrants from the border in addition to calling for state and federal help to pay for housing and services. He said as the number of people using the city's primary shelter system, which on Thursday stood at 61,379, was about to surpass the previous high of 61,415 established in 2019. On Friday, at least nine new migrant buses arrived.

According to Mr. Adams, the inflow of migrants could cost the city $1 billion in the current fiscal year alone. Migrants are on pace to increase the number of people living in shelters to above 100,000.

Mr. Adams declared in a speech that "we need help, and we need it now."

The mayor's decision frees the city from the normal land-use and community-review process, which frequently delays the opening of shelters, allowing it to establish emergency relief centres more quickly.

Mr. Adams stated that New York City is doing its part; now others must step up and join them. State of emergency has been declared by New York mayors before to free resources and suspend local laws, including during the monkeypox and Covid-19 outbreaks.

Since April, about 17,000 migrants have entered the city, many of whom are escaping the economic catastrophe of Venezuela. Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican who has been trying to exert pressure on the White House to strengthen border security, sent thousands of people on buses from Texas. The city said that 12,700 of the migrants were staying in shelters as of Sunday.