Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
After more than two years, the city is no longer using the former St. Brigid School to assist with asylum seekers.
According to several sources, as well as signage on the front door, the reticketing center here — officially known as the Asylum Seeker Resource Navigation Center
and the Reticketing Center — on the northeast corner of Seventh Street and Avenue B shuttered without any fanfare last Wednesday evening.
Yesterday, the space was vacated entirely. Workers have also removed all the air conditioners from the windows.
The city repurposed the school starting in the spring of 2023 in what the Adams administration referred to as respite centers for asylum seekers. The school, which the Archdiocese of New York closed in the spring of 2019, was reportedly designed to accommodate 350 adults on a short-term basis.
As we highlighted, the city struggled to meet the basic needs of the new arrivals here during the summer of 2023.
By the fall of 2023, the site had become a reticketing center to help provide transportation to asylum seekers who were bussed to NYC but whose final destination was elsewhere.
In recent months, the number of migrants seen at the center had decreased significantly, a precipitous drop from the lines residents witnessed in 2023 and early 2024.
This closure follows the end of the Asylum Seeker Arrival Center at the Roosevelt Hotel last week. The Randall's Island Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center closed in February.
According to City Limits, the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) traditional intake centers will serve as the starting point for migrants seeking shelter in the city.
City officials have stated that the number of arrivals in NYC is now down to approximately 100 per week, as the Trump Administration's crackdown on immigration continues full force.
Per Gothamist:
All told, since the spring of 2022, more than 237,000 migrants have been processed by the city's migrant intake system. The vast majority arrived from South and Central America, Africa and Asia. In May, the city put the cost of providing for the migrants at $7.7 billion since 2022.
Still, Molly Schaeffer, executive director of the Mayor's Office of Asylum Seeker Operations, told CBS News, "The migrant crisis is not over. It is absolutely just in a different phase of it. We still have a shelter capacity crisis in New York City."
During 2023, as the city struggled with the influx of asylum seekers and a patchwork system of shelters, locals here helped organize several clothing and supply distributions. Many East Village residents graciously donated a variety of items, as well as their time.
What now for St. Brigid?
The Archdiocese has leased the school to several city entities in recent years, including the New York City Emergency Management Department.
In the late winter of 2022, a handful of NYC public school teachers who received medical or religious exemptions to the city's COVID-19 vaccine mandate started working remotely from St. Brigid.
Now, there's speculation that the prime property could be sold off to a developer. There were rumors that the building was on the sales market, though we haven't seen any listings for the property.
Previously on EV Grieve:
• Inside the East Village 'respite center' for asylum seekers
• City using the former St. Brigid School to help asylum seekers with transportation
