Transcript: Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom Holds Briefing on Asylum Seeker Response

September 6, 2023

Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, Health and Human Services: Good afternoon. I'm Anne Williams Isom, and I'm the deputy mayor for Health and Human Services. And for this week's asylum seeker briefing, I'm joined by Tom Foley, commissioner of the Department of Design and Construction, and by Adolfo Carrión, the commissioner for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which just reminds me how this really is a whole of government approach to this issue.

Today we are announcing the opening of the new Humanitarian Relief Center at Austell Place in Long Island City, Queens. The expansion of this site, which has been used as one of our respite centers, makes this the city's 16th large humanitarian relief center as part of the more than 200 shelter sites the city is operating.

Let's think about this. It's been a little over a year and we've opened 200 plus sites in support to move more than 100,000 new arrivals who have come to the city since April of 2022. This phenomenal work, done by a dedicated team of public servants and nonprofits, should not go unnoticed as the sites are very complex to structure and to manage. Thank you to all of our team that work day in and day out to really operate and open these emergency sites and execute under these very challenging circumstances.

With that said, I will now turn it over to Commissioner Foley to discuss how this new humanitarian relief center is being constructed; and then, to Commissioner Carrión on to tell us how HPD will manage the site. Commissioner Foley.

Commissioner Thomas Foley, Department of Design and Construction: Thank you, deputy mayor. Much as we did during the pandemic when DDC built testing and vaccination sites around the city, DDC has been the rapid reaction force for assessing potential sites and building out humanitarian centers for asylum seekers. The agency provides site assessment capabilities and also operates as the construction manager at city owned sites while providing very important oversight of the construction teams to make sure we meet the demanding schedule for the humanitarian center.

DDC has completed 41 site assessments in collaboration with our city partners. Each assessment takes approximately three days to complete. Site conditions can vary greatly, as the deputy mayor noted. DDC was proud to collaborate on Austell Place. This photo shows the site when our teams first arrived.

Site assessment teams like the one here included architects, engineers, construction managers to quickly assess each location for potential capacity, ADA safety, code compliance for fire alarms and fire exit routes. They also checked the building's mechanical, electrical, water, sewer systems and anything else that would require safely housing the asylum seekers.

One example of the type of issues that we identified and addressed occurred at Austell Place site. Our team found the emergency egress was partially blocked, that you could see here on the exterior. To address that, we have to do a partial demolition and a reconstruction of the building's boiler room. We installed new storm water drain pipes and built new exterior landing. All this was necessary to ensure fire safety for the asylum seekers and the staff at the site.

Here is a picture of the finished product and one of the floors of Austell Place, which we're proud to complete with our partners, the city government. As mentioned, our SWAT team of engineers and architects can act and do act quickly to meet the city's need.

Like Austell, DDC is currently working or has worked on 10 other humanitarian center sites. Some are owned by the city and some are not. Many of these pictures are from the center at Randall's Island that was recently completed. Once a site has been approved for build out, DDC manages construction at several of the city owned sites. For these, for several locations we mobilize our on call designers and construction manager and then use our construction manager, what we called CM-Build, to complete the work more quickly.

For sites not owned by the city and which the city leases, DDC teams determine layouts for bed placement and are present at the site providing oversight of the landlords and the city construction teams in order to meet the aggressive schedules set for these centers to open. DDC staff also helps expedite approvals from agencies such as DOB — Department of Buildings — and also FDNY, and ensure that any critical safety issues are addressed immediately.

I'm extremely proud to report that even during emergency contracting like the asylum crises, DDC has met or greatly exceeded our MWBE goals for our construction managers, our designers and our teams that are on site. Using our diverse pool of vendors and all the tools at our disposal, the center's construction has in several cases been completed in two weeks or less, though schedules can vary depending on the size and complexity of the location. This includes bathroom and showering facilities as seen here. It also includes other essentials like tents for medical personnel.

Lastly, I'd like to thank our partners in government and the amazing DDC staff that have worked tirelessly during this crisis to help find and create suitable locations for people seeking refuge in our city. These DDC teams came together to help during the pandemic they're doing it now for the asylum seeker crisis. They're on call for any future emergencies that may arise in our great city. Back to you, thank you deputy mayor.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Thank you so much, commissioner. Commissioner Carrión.

Commissioner Adolfo Carrión, Jr., Department of Housing Preservation and Development: Thank you, deputy mayor, and thank you as well, Commissioner Foley, for your partnership not only for your update today but for your work serving asylum seekers. New York City's compassionate approach to the unfolding asylum seeker crisis provides a path forward for the rest of the state and for the rest of the country. We continue on that path with the opening of another, yet another humanitarian emergency response and relief center at Austell Place in Long Island City, where those arriving in this country having fled hardship will be welcomed with the dignity and respect they deserve.

Our agency is only one of many city agencies tasked with managing sites like Austell Place, but we're proud to be part of the city wide effort to shelter asylum seekers. The speed at which the city is rapidly scaling capacity to meet the needs of this crisis is nothing short of herculean.

It's also in line with the level of care and attention to detail we provide in managing each site. At Austell Place and at each of our humanitarian emergency response and relief centers, we're providing as much support as is humanly possible. At full capacity, Austell Place will be able to serve nearly 1,000 people offering not only a safe place to sleep but also food, medical care and help from social service workers. Guests will have access to a cafeteria with three meals and snacks each day, medical staff, case management to assist with legal aid, reconnection and ticketing to find their friends and family, and referrals to other service providers as needed.

The center will contain five floors. The top four floors will be used for sleeping areas, and the first floor will have intake, a cafeteria, a lounge, a medical station, a case management station and a mail room. Currently there is capacity in this building for 330 guests on the top two floors while construction finishes on the other floors. We're expecting all the work to be completed and for maximum capacity to be reached by the end of next week. Families, men, women and children arriving in New York City, turning to us in their time of need, and we're doing everything in our power to make those individuals feel safe, sheltered and part of our community.

But before I turn back to deputy mayor, I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the HPD staff who are working around the clock to address this crisis with compassion and care for others. I also want to acknowledge the incredibly demanding work that our partners are doing in close coordination with HPD and other agencies, including DocGo, Garner, and New York Disaster Interfaith Services who are each working around the clock 24/7 to help stand up sites and manage the day to day operations.

We would not be where we are today in managing this crisis if it were not for our staff and our crucial partners who are carrying out this mission. As HPD commissioner, I get to see firsthand the tremendous amount of care being provided not only at these centers but in every step leading up to opening and managing each site.

For many of us, this was not the job we signed up for or expected to be doing over a year ago. But I'm inspired, inspired by those whose dedication to serving the public shines through every single day. Right now the dedication calls on us as a city to do what is needed for those seeking refuge here in the great city of New York. I'm proud to say my city, our city, New York City, is up to the challenge and doing what is right by these newest Americans. Thank you, deputy mayor.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Thank you so much, commissioner. This new site demonstrates that this crisis, even though some are wondering if we should still call it a crisis, is still very much with us and that we continue to meet our obligations.

But this is only a piece of what we know is a larger ecosystem of work that needs to happen through our efforts of those with the state and federal government. As you all remember, last Thursday, the mayor led the American Dream Works Rally, calling for federal partners to unlock faster pathways for people to work. I want to thank everyone who came out at last week's rally calling for the federal government to speed up work authorizations and make it easier for people who are seeking asylum.

We had local leaders, city wide leaders, labor groups, trade associations, business owners and asylum seekers themselves speaking in their own voice. And as I stood there, I was surprised to see tears coming running down my eyes as each one of the asylum seekers greeted us with "the peace of God" and with the "peace be with you." Something that we say to each other when we're in synagogues or we're in church, they said peace be with you, and they thanked us for our gratitude.

As you can see, we are doing our part and then some with each step of the way to give people our best chance at American dream. But as we have said all along, we cannot do this alone. Before I share the latest data, I want to make this point, which I think sometimes gets too lost in this crisis, and it's simple. I and 8.3 million other people who are lucky enough to call the greatest city on the earth our home, we live in New York State, we live in the United States. All of this conversation about whether this is about the city versus the state or versus Washington doesn't make any sense, because we are on the same team.

Our failures are each other's failures, our successes are each other's successes. We're new Yorkers and we're Americans, and in moments of crisis like this, we are one and all, and we're counting on our leaders to pitch in. With that, now let me share with you the latest numbers. As of September 3rd, we have over 112,300 people in our care including over 59,700 asylum seekers. Over 10,100 asylum seekers have come through our intake center since September of 2022. We have opened 206 sites including 15 humanitarian relief centers, including Austell Place, which we transitioned to a HERRC. And last week from August 28th to September 3rd, more than [2,700] new asylum seekers entered our care.

Hundreds of asylum seekers continue to arrive to our city every day and our heads are barely being kept above water. There are solutions to this emergency. We need expedited work authorization, additional financial support, a federal declaration of emergency, a national and a state wide decompression strategy to the relieve the pressure that we are feeling here in New York City. There are solutions here. The status quo is not working, and New Yorkers are demanding that we do more. I think we should heed their call. With that, I will take questions.

Question: Thank you. Two questions. First one for you, deputy mayor. We reported this morning that the city has started moving single adult migrants from four HERRCs in Manhattan with the thinking being that that would open up space for families with children. I was wondering if you have a sense of how many single adults are actually still living in single room HERRCs like that, and is it the plan to, you know, no longer host single adults in such settings.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Yes, I think that as I've said all the time, with 100,000 people coming to the city there are no good solutions, and so what we would like to do is prioritize families with children. And so in those places where there are single adults were doubled up or tripled up in hotel rooms or in different places of that, we want to move them into congregate settings so that we can have more space for families with children.

Question: A question just for the commissioner, too, if you don't mind. HPD Twitter account this morning, since you brought up DocGo, kind of posted a few tweets pushing back on Comptroller Lander's projection of the contract.

I'm just wondering, tweets like that, is that something that HPD does on its own account, or is that ordered by the mayor's office? And on that same point, what do you say to critics who say that that's not a good use of HPD resources to pick a Twitter battle with the comptroller?

Commissioner Carrión: We are in the middle of an emergency. It's a humanitarian crisis of proportions that we really never imagined. The controller approved emergency procurement and we invite him to continue to work with us with our team, his staff to complete the contractual work, not only this one but obviously there are tens and tens of contracts that we've had to get approved.

And I also want to take this opportunity to invite public officials to come see the humanitarian centers, to see the services that are being delivered there. This is an emerging crisis. Every day throws us a new curveball, and so there's a lot of adjusting that goes on and evaluation and correction and improvement. So, we invite a positive engagement with the controller.

Question: Is the new HERRC going to be… Now I'm forgetting my question. Oh, is it going to be funded by the state?

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: That's a great question, Austell Place, I don't think so.

Question: Okay.

Carrión: No.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Yes. I don't think so. And they'll correct me if I'm wrong.

Carrión: Yes. George tells me no.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Oh, George says… Okay, thank you.

Question: Hi, Deputy…

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Hi, Liz.

Question: I was told that six buses were expected today from Texas coming to Port Authority. I wanted to see if you could confirm that. And also, one of the advocates tells us that the conditions at the Roosevelt are getting more and more crowded…

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Mmm.

Question: …that there are families that are basically spending several days waiting to get processed sleeping on cots in a ballroom. And I wanted to know if you could confirm that and just say like, you know, how long is the average wait time for a family to get a hotel room or whatever accommodations.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: We are… Thank you for that question. We are definitely running out of room. I did get notice last night that we were expecting six buses today, which again, I want us to think about this. What are we, 13, 14 months into this and we're still getting buses when we already have 112,000 people that we're taking care of. That is not sustainable, certainly can't be sustained by the city alone.

When I… The last time I was at the Roosevelt, every space was taken up. You would see moms, you would see pack and plays set up, so I'm not surprised to see that every inch of the Roosevelt is being used. And we, to Chris' point earlier, we're trying to do the best that we can to free up space in hotel rooms so that we can have more space for families with children. It's a dire situation.

Question: Thank you. In terms of proceeding with DocGo’s contract notwithstanding the comptroller's returning it, are there any procedural steps where officials were [inaudible] what needs to happen in order to pay that contract and compensate the work being done [inaudible] happens on its own that you’re able to do without any sort of procedural step.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Yes, so I think I'm going to go back to what the commissioner said, which is that you know, with over 100,000 folks coming into our shelter system, we have been working with controller, I was actually with him this afternoon at the legal clinic where we were able to go through to take a tour of that to see how we would be able to expand that and do that very important work.

We all have different roles to play. Our role is to make sure that we are opening up sites and that we're doing that correctly and that people are staying safe. And so we are going to hope to continue to work with the controller in order to do that so that we don't have anybody sleeping on the streets.

So, I'm not going to get into the whole process of the contractual process, we will do what we need to do to make sure nobody is sleeping on, no families with children are sleeping on the streets here.

Question: This is for the deputy mayor. Recently the city appealed [inaudible] for non citizens to vote in our municipal elections, also with working papers. If you guys win that appeal and the migrants got, the asylum seekers get the working papers, are they able to vote in our municipal elections?

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: So, I don't know the answer to that. I'm not aware of that. I don't think so, but we can follow up on that so that I don't give you an incorrect answer. Okay? You're welcome.

Question: Commissioner, speak to us in Spanish.

Commissioner Carrión: Si, como no? [Speaks in Spanish].

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Commissioner Carrión: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Question: Deputy Mayor, I wanted to ask you about some of the remarks that you made in July of this year. You had said that most of the asylum seekers are coming to the city right now — this is a quote [inaudible]. On some days, we don't get any buses. They're coming from south of the border. Has it picked back up with regard to the buses?  

And then the second question is, you also said, I'm reading the quote, migrants might be in other parts of the United States, they're hearing about New York City and what they get when they come to New York City. Since we have a front door that's open, people are finding themselves here.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Yeah.

Question: To what extent do you think the policies in New York incentivize folks to come to New York and to America?

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Every time you get… You make me nervous when you say you're going to tell me my own words, and I was like, no!  I was like, that is what I said  and it is true. I was like, they're very wise words.

So, no, I would still say and I was looking at this the other day because I think there was an article that where Governor Abbott was talking about how many people he's bussed to New York City, and the number was what, 13,000 and if we know that we have 59,000 that here now, we know that people are not just coming on buses. So, that's the first answer. And, but I haven't gotten six buses a day in a very long time.

I one hundred percent, and I think that this has been confirmed by some discussions that were had at the federal level, that before was kind of the right to shelter what's going on in New York City was like our little secret, now the whole globe knows that if you go to New York City we're going to do what we always do, right?  We have a big heart. We have compassion. We're going to take care of people. You're going to get a hotel room. You're going to get school open arms.

And while we love that and we are so proud of that I think in a way it's being used against us and I am like frustrated by that and I would like some help about that and I would like to kind of slow down what's happening at the front door a little bit.

I think Chicago and Philadelphia and other places are able to be like, stay here for 30 days, but then you know, on day 31 you could go to New York City and then they'll take care of you. That doesn't seem fair to me, because then it puts us in a situation where we have to make impossible decisions, and I think that's why we're in part of the situation.

And honestly, if we didn't have the right to shelter I think we would still get people but I think that it would be a little less in terms of the messaging which is that there's a wide open front door right now.

Question: If we're so generous, why shouldn't the rest of the country pick up the tab for…

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: I think that this is a national issue and I think we shouldn't be penalized for who we are, but I do think that there are solutions to this if we work together. No, nope, let me take out the "think," Noah. I know that there are solutions to this if we work together as a state and a federal government, and I don't see why we are the ones who are being, having a humanitarian response.

I've seen what other parts of the country are doing, but there's no fingers pointing to other parts of the country. They've come through to us and they're like, you guys shouldn't be so nice and you shouldn't do what you do. I feel like that's crazy. I also know that New Yorkers are frustrated and we feel like we're almost in a way being taken advantage of, and we're kind of at the end of our ropes.

Question: Deputy mayor, tomorrow is the first day of school, and there are estimates now that they'll be about 20,000 children of migrants who are going to be going into New York City schools. But the head of the UFT says that it could be chaotic because some of the migrants who live in shelters may end up going to one school but then when they get vouchers at some point in the school year may have to transfer to another. How is that going to be good practice for these kids who are going to be uprooted once or twice during this process?

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: So, Marcia, thank you for the question, and I think we really had… When the chancellor was here last week we had an extensive conversation about all the work that they're doing in Project Open Arms.

I don't want to talk about New York City traumatizing children, I want to talk about the trauma of children coming and making their way up to this place and not having a national government that cares enough about the children that are making their way here to make sure that they get what they need.

We are going to figure it out, I promise you that. And whether there's a...if there's a couple of first days of children not getting to the exact right place we will figure it out and they will be in a good place.

What I would like is for the whole nation and other people to do what we're doing which is to make sure that we're giving children and families what they need and that we are addressing this immigration crisis in the way that it needs to be addressed not by putting it on the backs of New Yorkers in a DOE system, in an HPD system, in a homeless scalability. It just doesn't make sense, you all.

Question: Mayor, can you hear me?

Moderator: Yes, we can.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Ooh, did she call me the mayor?

[Laughter]

Question: Deputy Mayor.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Thank you. Don't get me in trouble now.

Question: No, thank you so much. I was just wondering, has there been any progress in conversations with the governor in moving migrants upstate and also, would you guys like to see the state lawmakers host a special session, return before January, to talk about funding or anything else?

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: So, thank you for the question, and I would say that there is progress. I feel like everyone is approaching this as if it’s, let me think about what I can do and let me think and let me talk to the nonprofits and maybe we have some solutions. And they are approaching this as an intellectual issue. We have 100,000 people that are in our care right now, six buses coming, 2,700 people that come a week. I think there’s a sense of urgency that somehow it seems like only New York City has that sense of urgency. So the answer to all of your questions is yes. I would like people to be resettled upstate quicker, I would like the legislature to do whatever they can. I would like work authorization, a federal declaration, all of those things that we’ve been calling for, and I would like them now.