2 Centers For Asylum Seekers Opening On UWS: More Than 800 People

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A pair of emergency humanitarian relief centers will open on the Upper West Side for more than 800 asylum seekers, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday.

The two centers will be located at 205-207 W. 85th St. and at 117 W. 70th St., and will serve adult families and single women.

“New York City is facing a humanitarian crisis unlike any other before,” Adams said in a news release. “With more than 47,000 asylum seekers still in the city’s care and thousands continuing to arrive each week, we need a national decompression strategy to handle this national issue."

The new Upper West Side centers will serve more than 800 people in 516 rooms.

The news release from the mayor's office points to the more than 47,000 asylum seekers that are currently in the city's care, with thousands more arriving each week.

The release does not specify when the centers will open or how the Upper West Side locations were chosen.

In terms of the addresses, the location on 70th Street is already student housing for the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, and the home of Metro House, a mental health service provider.

The building on West 85th Street is also college housing.

The Upper West Side has already seen multiple emergency housing options open for asylum seekers in recent months, including in a different residence hall on West 88th Street and in the Belnord Hotel on West 87th Street.

In August, 30 families were also sent to live in an Upper West Side hotel on Central Park West.

"The UWS has welcomed and support asylum seekers who've moved to the neighborhood over the past year," Council Member Gale Brewer wrote Monday on Twitter. "Today the Admin told me that two new HERRCs are opening in the district."

"The UWS community has shown an outpouring of support for asylum seekers and will continue to do so," she added.