The final phase of New York City's use of hotels as migrant shelters is approaching, with Mayor Eric Adams announcing last Saturday the upcoming closure of the Row NYC. This Midtown hotel, which was previously popular with tourists before the pandemic, was repurposed to house migrants and asylum seekers during the city's surge in demand for shelter in 2022. "We opened hundreds of emergency migrant shelters to ensure no family slept on the street," Mayor Adams said in a statement obtained by Gothamist. The number of migrants, which once reached thousands each week, has since declined significantly.
The future of the Row hotel remains undecided, as city officials have not yet determined whether it will reopen as a hotel or close permanently. Since June, many of the 64 city-run emergency migrant sites, including tent-based facilities, have been closed as part of a reduction in the city’s expanded support network for migrants. According to CBS News, shelter demand has decreased, with the mayor reporting that over 200,000 migrants have been assisted in exiting the shelter system since the start of the crisis.
The Row was not the only hotel repurposed for migrant support; the Roosevelt Hotel near Grand Central Terminal was also converted into a migrant intake center before closing in June. At its busiest, the center assisted approximately 4,000 individuals per week, compared to about 100 weekly migrants currently arriving, with numbers steadily declining, especially following the implementation of President Trump's stricter immigration policies.
Mayor Adams’s office describes the Row’s closure as "yet another major milestone in our administration's recovery from this international humanitarian crisis," according to a statement to CBS News. The issue has been a point of political contention, as the mayor previously filed a lawsuit challenging the application of the city’s right to shelter law to migrants—a legal stance that highlights ongoing conflicts with federal immigration policies.
