Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
On Saturday morning, a reporter covering the humanitarian crisis at the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown asked me if anyone in the neighborhood did emergency aid crisis response.
She mentioned witnessing hundreds of people on the sidewalk, with the heat index hovering around 100, without food or water while they waited for a spot to open up at the intake center. (All arriving asylum seekers are now processed through a centralized system, but they are no spaces available, so long lines have formed while people wait — up to several days — for a chance to get inside.)
I contacted some mutual aid groups I'd worked with in the past, including East Village Loves NYC, and we set up a plan to provide 250 meals to people midday after being told they'd only had a "block of cheese" and a bottle of water the night before.
In less than four hours, the volunteers with EVLovesNYC prepared hundreds of meals (beef and vegan options) at their home base, the Sixth Street Community Center, and had them ready to go...
We arrived at the city's intake center at the hotel on East 45th Street. We received assistance from DocGo (the subcontractor managing the site) to hand out the halal meals, watermelon slices, chocolate croissants (courtesy of C&B Cafe on Seventh Street) and bottles of water.
With so many people waiting (some transported to area hospitals), the city was scrambling for places to put them. The Mayor's office hoped to move people to the Port Authority while waiting for space to open up. MTA buses were brought in as emergency mobile cooling centers.
The situation at the center was tense, and later that night, after we left, people tried to break the barrier to get inside. There isn't an end in sight, and the city repeatedly has stated they have no more room to house the influx. (City and state officials also continue to ask for assistance from the federal government.)
For information on volunteering with or donating to EVLovesNYC, visit this site.
8 comments:
Thank you, Stacie, and EVLovesNYC!
Thank you for your dedication to helping those in need! I hope the city can figure out how best to help these people.
Thank you so much. Rejoice at the compassion shown to these people, often being used as political pawns.
Thank you EVLOVESNYC for everything you do and to Stacie for covering it.
Great work Stacie! Where's Schumer? Where's AOC? Why aren't they criticizing the Federal response?
It's not clear why DocGo (which had a troubled contract with the city over COVID testing) was chosen to manage these sites. At least they didn't try to interfere with distribution of aid, like those running the center in the EV did. Bless you guys for turning out to do this work.
ugh... this situation is terrible. we don't have the resources to adequately take care of our own citizens, let alone all of the asylum (economic migrants) seekers.
I think "we" have the resources to take care of everyone, "we" just choose not to do it. Thank you to those taking matters into your own hands.
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