Almost no NYC migrants are accepting free plane, bus tickets after shelter evictions, data shows

Almost no NYC migrants are accepting free plane, bus tickets after shelter evictions, data shows Less than 2% of adult migrants per day are accepting free plane or bus tickets to leave the Big Apple once they are booted from the city’s overflowing shelter system, newly released data shows. Of the roughly 1,600 asylum seekers who flock to the city’s East Village intake center each day, an average of just 30 per day have been willing to relocate to another city or state, according to data obtained by Gothamist from the city’s emergency management agency. In September, Mayor Eric Adams’ administration cut the time that adult migrants can stay at city-run shelters to 30 days, in a bid to free up space in the already overburdened system. As a result, hundreds of adult migrants have for months been flooding the intake center — located at the former St. Brigid School on East 7th Street. Hundreds of adult migrants have for months been flooding the intake center -- located at the former St. Brigid School on East 7th Street Of the roughly 1,600 asylum seekers who have gone to an intake center in the East Village when their 30-day shelter stay expired, an average of 2% are accepting a free plane or bus ticket, data shows. J. Messerschmidt for NY Post Once there, the migrants can either re-apply for taxpayer-funded temporary housing, which could see them sent to hotels upstate — or take up the offer of a free one-way bus or plane ticket. EXPLORE MORE People holding posters with slain Georgia nursing student Laken Riley’s photo at a Trump rally in Rome, Georgia on March 9, 2024. Laken Riley’s life was worth no less than George Floyd’s Faith leaders plan to head to DC on Tuesday NYC faith leaders to head to DC to plead for help with asylum seeker crisis White House claims Biden ‘did not apologize’ for using ‘illegal’ to describe Laken Riley’s alleged migrant killer The data, collected between Dec. 17 to March 3, shows that just 15% of the migrants, on average, were able to secure another bed after trying to re-enter the shelter system at the East Village intake center after getting their 30-day eviction notice. The city has so far coughed up $7.6 million to reticket migrants out of the Big Apple since spring 2022, a City Hall spokesperson told The Post. The top destinations include other parts of New York state, Illinois, Texas, Florida, Colorado, Minnesota, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Hundreds of adult migrants have for months been flooding the intake center -- located at the former St. Brigid School on East 7th Street -- after the city started capping the time a single adult migrant can remain in a shelter Hundreds of adult migrants have for months been flooding the intake center — located at the former St. Brigid School on East 7th Street — after the city started capping the time a single adult migrant can remain in a shelter. Kevin C. Downs for NY Post It wasn’t immediately clear how much of that $7.6 million has been forked out at the East Village center. Asylum seekers can also get reticketed at other shelters, including the city’s main Roosevelt Hotel intake center. The data for the other reticketing sites was not immediately available. City officials, however, insist that roughly 60% of the migrants who have come through the Big Apple’s shelter system since spring 2022 — or about 113,000 — have already “taken the next steps in their journeys.” This includes asylum seekers who are no longer in the city’s care because they either support themselves or left using their own means. “We’re laser-focused on using intensive case management, reticketing, and legal support to help more people move out of shelter as they desire more self-sufficient lives,” the City Hall rep told The Post. “While we are grateful for the assistance we have received thus far from our federal partners, we need more. We need the federal government to finish the job they started by providing more asylum seekers with expedited work authorization, sending additional financial support to New York City, and implementing a comprehensive decompression and resettlement strategy.”