Former Hunter Dorms To Become Family Migrant Shelters

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The 506-unit building on Third Avenue and 97th Street were always filled with people ready to learn.

But now instead of CUNY and other college students, the 247,000-square-foot building will be home for 500 migrant families ready to start a new life and learn how to make it in the Big Apple.

Mayor Adams announced late Tuesday that the massive former college dormitory at 1760 Third Ave., just a block from the Upper East Side between East 97th and 98th streets, would become the city's 12th Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center to help the 81,200 people who have come to the city since last spring.

Currently the city has over 50,000 asylum seekers in public shelters, Adams said.

"We continue to meet the needs of people arriving in New York, but as the number of asylum seekers continues to grow, we are in serious need of support from the federal government," Adams said.

Although not technically in the Upper East Side, the new residents will be a major addition to the current shelter population.

As of May 31, 628 people live in Department of Homeless Services shelters on the Upper East Side.

The majority — 573 — reside at one of the 175 emergency shelters opened since last spring in the city: the recently opened migrant family shelter at the Bentley Hotel in Lenox Hill, according to DHS data. The number of people staying in the hotel's 197 rooms has decreased by 32 since the end of April.

The other 55 people are at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House's women's shelter at the Park Avenue Armory.

It's unclear how many people total will comprise the 500 families, but the families could theoretically bring East Harlem's shelter population to the highest in Manhattan.

Currently, East Harlem has 1,469 shelter residents.

If each family has at least four-and-a-half people, that could easily eclipse the current top neighborhood, Midtown, which has 3,725 residents as of the end of May.

For comparison, the Upper West Side currently has 1,901 shelter residents, an increase from around 1,700 back in March.

The 19-story building used to house students from CUNY's Hunter and Baruch colleges, the private, for-profit Laboratory Institute of Merchandising, and other students through the company, Educational Housing Services.

A spokesperson from CUNY said that about 99 students lived there per semester and that the last students moved out in May 2022, shortly after they announced the building would no longer house CUNY students. The spokesperson also said that the university has found new housing to replace the lost beds.

The mayor's office did not reply to questions about the city contract with the building or when families will be moving in.

In 2019, Meridian Capital Group successfully sold the building for $212.5 million.