This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated May 26, 2023
Just over a week ago, several public schools with standalone gyms began to receive notice that those buildings on their property would become used for temporary overflow shelters for asylum seekers before they would be moved on to different facilities. The matter brought out the best in many people, the worst in some others, but overall, there was broad consensus that school gyms were not suitable sites for asylees or for the students losing their gyms, especially when alternatives exist.
As a member of leadership of the District 21 Community Education Council, myself and some other active executive members of our council were active in the response to P.S. 188’s standalone gym being converted into a shelter. Shortly before our May monthly meeting on Wednesday, May 17, we learned that the mayor had reversed course, and all asylees had been relocated from the school gym.
All along, it was clear that a school building on school grounds during a time when school is in session is not a suitable site for a shelter facility. It wasn’t suitable for the asylees or the students. Our council went ahead that evening and voted on a resolution we had drafted, stating that asylees deserve compassion and appropriate shelter, and that schools in underserved communities should not lose limited resources without consultation or notice to bear the burden of this crisis due to poor planning by the city. The resolution passed unanimously.
Asylum seekers who have journeyed thousands of miles to flee violence and poverty, many who have found themselves bussed thousands of miles more through our country from states whose leaders are treating vulnerable human beings as political props, deserve a place of shelter that affords them dignity, respect, and basic needs, such as a shower, which school gyms could not provide. We understand that our city and our community is part of this humanitarian crisis, and as we have done after 9/11, after Superstorm Sandy, Southern Brooklyn will do all we can to lend a hand to those in need and help these new New Yorkers.
Poor planning from the mayor, and lack of support and resources from state and federal authorities, should not mean that schools in communities that have traditionally lacked resources need to lose facilities that were built over the past decade to begin to rectify that problem. The only reason P.S. 188 and other schools that were selected to be used as shelters had standalone gyms was because for generations, they had no gyms at all. These standalone gyms were built to remedy that.
Then, without any consultation, and barely any notice, these schools were informed that the fact they had a standalone gym, meant they would lose that facility for the purpose of a shelter, which was yet again, another example of how inequitably these schools have been treated.
After a near universal public outcry, the city found alternatives to provide better shelter sites for asylees, which seemed to have been available all along. We need to treat asylum seekers with compassion and respect and reject the xenophobia that otherizes and demonizes people who are coming here for what immigrants for generations have come to America for.
On May 19, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, joined by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, called on Mayor Adams to take legal action to make thousands of unlisted vacant apartments available for New Yorkers living in shelters. Governor Hochul has been calling for federally controlled areas to be made available as shelter sites. There are solutions, but it will take all levels of government working together to provide the best, most comprehensive plans to address the matter.
Although I saw people I know organizing dozens of community members to round up items to be donated by asylees, I also saw others trafficking in hateful rhetoric about migrants who are fully documented and awaiting immigration hearings. There were also some who went out of their way to fabricate stories intended to stir up anger about these vulnerable asylum seekers.
The New York Post had reported that homeless veterans were kicked out of an Orange County hotel to make room for migrants bused there from New York City. Republican Assemblyman Brian Maher, serving as a volunteer spokesperson for the non-profit that initiated this claim, provided details to the Post for its original story, though he later apologized to the hotel, his community, and veterans when it became clear what he was told was a lie. He has since called for an investigation of the non-profit, as fifteen homeless men told CNN they were paid to pretend they were veterans displaced to make room for asylees.
The damage has already been done. On May 17, New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik criticized Governor Hochul in a tweet for kicking the homeless veterans out for asylees and she has still not corrected the record, even after the story was proven to be false. This is a challenging situation, but we need to deal in facts, not spread mistruths to whip up anger that will be directed at vulnerable people who have come here for what makes our country special.
