 Good afternoon. I'm Anne Williams-Eisem and I'm the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services and for this week's asylum seeker briefing I'm joined by Tom Foley, Commissioner of the Department of Design and Construction and by Adolfo Carreon, the Commissioner for the Department of Housing and Preservation and Development which just reminds me how this really is a whole of government approach to this issue. Today we are announcing the opening of the new Humanitarian Relief Center at Orstel Place in Long Island City, Queens. The expansion of this site, which will be used, which has been used as one of our respite centers, makes this the city's 16th large humanitarian relief center as part of the more than 200 shelter sites the city is operating. Let's think about this. It's been little over a year and we've opened 200 plus sites in support to move more than 100,000 new arrivals who have come to the city since April of 2022. This phenomenal work done by dedicated team of public servants and nonprofits should not go unnoticed as the sites are very complex to structure and to manage. Thank you to all of our team that work day in and day out to really operate and open these emergency sites and execute under these very challenging circumstances. With that said, I will now turn it over to Commissioner Foley to discuss how this new Humanitarian Relief Center is being constructed and then to Commissioner Carreon to tell us how HPD will manage the site. Commissioner Foley. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Much as we did during the pandemic when DDC built testing and vaccination sites around the city, DDC has been the rapid reaction force for assessing potential sites and building out humanitarian centers for asylum seekers. The agency provides site assessment capabilities and also operates as the construction manager at city owned sites while providing very important oversight of the construction teams to make sure we meet the demanding schedule for the humanitarian center. DDC has completed 41 site assessments in collaboration with our city partners. Each assessment takes approximately three days to complete. Site conditions can vary greatly. As the Deputy Mayor noted, DDC was proud to collaborate on Austel Place. This photo shows the site when our teams first arrived. Site assessment teams like the one here included architects, engineers, construction managers to quickly assess each location for potential capacity, ADA safety, code compliance for fire alarms and fire exit routes. They also check the building's mechanical, electrical, water sewer systems and anything else that would require safely housing the asylum seekers. One example of the type of issues that we identified and addressed occurred at Austel Place site. Our team found the emergency egress was partially blocked that you could see here on the exterior. To address that we had to do a partial demolition and a reconstruction of the building's boiler room, we installed new storm water drain pipes and built new exterior landing. All this was necessary to ensure fire safety for the asylum seekers and the staff at the site. Here is a picture of the finished product on one of the floors at Austel Place, which we're proud to complete with our partners in city government. As mentioned, our SWAT team of engineers and architects can act and do act quickly to meet the city's need. Like Austel, DDC is currently working or has worked on 10 other humanitarian center sites, some are owned by the city and some are not. Many of these pictures are from the center at Randalls Island that was recently completed. Once the site has been approved for build out, DDC manages construction at several of the city's own sites. For these, for several locations, we mobilize our on-call designers and construction manager and then use our construction manager, what we called CM Build, to complete the work more quickly. For sites not owned by the city and which the city leases, DDC teams determine layouts for bed placement and are present at the site providing oversight of the landlords and the city construction teams in order to meet the aggressive schedule set for these centers to open. DDC staff also helps expedite approvals from agencies such as DOB, Department of Buildings and also FDNY and ensure that any critical safety issues are addressed immediately. I'm extremely proud to report that even during emergency contracting like the asylum crisis, DDC has met or greatly exceeded our MWB goals for our construction managers, our designers and our teams that are on site. Using our diverse pool of vendors and all the tools at our disposal, the center's construction has in several cases been completed in two weeks or less, though schedules can vary depending on the size and complexity of the location. This includes bathroom and showering facilities as seen here. It also includes other essentials like tents for medical personnel. Lastly, I'd like to thank our partners in government and the amazing DDC staff that have worked tirelessly during this crisis to help find and create suitable locations for people seeking refuge in our city. These DDC teams came together to help turn the pandemic. They're doing it now for the asylum seeker crisis. They're on call for any future emergencies that may arise in our great city. Back to you. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Thank you so much, Commissioner. Commissioner Carrion. Thank you, Deputy Mayor, and thank you as well, Commissioner Foley, for your partnership, not only for your update today, but for your work serving asylum seekers. New York City's compassionate approach to the unfolding asylum seeker crisis provides a path forward for the rest of the state and for the rest of the country. We continue on that path with the opening of another, yet another humanitarian emergency response and relief center at Austell Place in Long Island City, where those arriving in this country having fled hardship will be welcomed with the dignity and respect they deserve. Our agency is only one of many city agencies tasked with managing sites like Austell Place, but we're proud to be part of the citywide effort to shelter asylum seekers. The speed at which the city is rapidly scaling capacity to meet the needs of this crisis is nothing short of herculean. It's also in line with the level of care and attention to detail we provide in managing each site. At Austell Place, and at each of our humanitarian emergency response and relief centers, we're providing as much support as is humanly possible. At full capacity, Austell Place will be able to serve nearly 1,000 people or offering not only a safe place to sleep, but also food, medical care, and help from social services. Guests will have access to a cafeteria with three meals and snacks each day, medical staff, case management to assist with legal aid, reconnection ticketing to find their friends and family, and referrals to other service providers as needed. The center will contain five floors. The top four floors will be used for sleeping areas, and the first floor will have intake, a cafeteria, a lounge, a medical station, a case management station, and a mailroom. Currently, there is capacity in this building for 330 guests on the top two floors, while construction finishes on the other floors. We're expecting all the work to be completed and for maximum capacity to be reached by the end of next week. Families, men, women, and children are arriving in New York City, turning to us in their time of need, and we're doing everything in our power to make those individuals feel safe, sheltered, and part of our community. Before I turn back to Deputy Mayor, I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the HPD staff who are working around the clock to address this crisis with compassion and care for others. I also want to acknowledge the incredibly demanding work that our partners are doing in close coordination with HPD and other agencies, including DACO, Garner, and New York Disaster Interfaith Services, who are each working around the clock 24-7 to help stand up sites and manage the day-to-day operations. We would not be where we are today in managing this crisis if it were not for our staff and our crucial partners who are carrying out this mission. As HPD Commissioner, I get to see firsthand the tremendous amount of care being provided not only at these centers, but in every step leading up to opening and managing each site. For many of us, this was not the job we signed up for or expected to be doing over a year ago. But I'm inspired, inspired by those whose dedication to serving the public shines through every single day. Right now, that dedication calls on us as a city to do what is needed for those seeking refuge here in the great city of New York. I'm proud to say my city, our city, New York City, is up to that challenge and doing what is right by these newest Americans. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Thank you so much, Commissioner. This new site demonstrates that this crisis, even though some are wondering if we should still call it a crisis, is still very much with us and that we continue to meet our obligations. But this is only a piece of what we know is a larger ecosystem of work that needs to happen through our efforts of those with the state and federal government. As you all remember, last Thursday, the mayor led the American DreamWorks Rally, calling for federal partners to unlock faster pathways for people to work. I want to thank everyone who came out at that last week's rally, calling for the federal government to speed up work authorizations and make it easier for people who are seeking asylum. We had local leaders, citywide leaders, labor groups, trade associations, business owners, and asylum seekers themselves speaking in their own voice. And as I stood there, I was surprised to see tears coming running down my eyes as each one of the asylum seekers greeted us with the peace of God and with the peace be with you. Something that we say to each other when we're in synagogues or we're in church, they said, peace be with you, and they thanked us for our gratitude. As you can see, we are doing our part and then some with each step of the way to give people our best chance at American Dream. But as we have said all alone, we cannot do this alone. Before I share the latest data, I want to make this point, which I think sometimes gets too lost in this crisis, and it's simple. I and 8.3 million other people who are lucky enough to call the greatest city on the earth our home, we live in New York State. We live in the United States. All of this conversation about whether this is about the city versus the state or versus Washington doesn't make any sense because we are on the same team. Our failures are each other failures, our successes are each other's successes. We're New Yorkers and we're Americans. And in moments of crisis like this, we are one in all and we're counting on our leaders to pitch in. With that, now let me share with you the latest numbers. As of September 3rd, we have over 112,300 people in our care, including over 59,700 asylum seekers. Over a 10,100 asylum seekers have come through our intake center since September of 2022. We have opened 206 sites, including 15 humanitarian relief centers, including our Stell Place, which we transitioned to a HIRC. And last week, from August 28th to September 3rd, more than 27,000 new asylum seekers entered our care. Hundreds of asylum seekers continue to arrive to our city every day and our heads are barely being kept above water. There are solutions to this emergency. We need expedited work authorization, additional financial support, a federal declaration of emergency, a national and a statewide decompression strategy to relieve the pressure that we are feeling here in New York City. There are solutions here. The status quo is not working and New Yorkers are demanding that we do more. I think we should heed their call. With that, I will take questions. Two questions. First one for you, Deputy Mayor. We reported this morning that the city has started moving single adult migrants from four perks in Manhattan. I was wondering, do you have a sense of how many single adults are actually still in single room perks like that? And is it the plan to no longer host single adults in such settings? Yeah, I think that as I've said all the time, with 100,000 people coming to the city, there are no good solutions. And so what we would like to do is prioritize families with children. And so in those places where there are single adults where doubled up or tripled up in hotel rooms or in different places of that, we want to move them into congregate settings so that we can have more space for families with children. First rejection of the contract. I'm just wondering that tweets like that, is that something that HPD does on its own account or is that ordered by the mayor's office? And on that same point, what do you say to critics who say that that's not a good use of HPD resources to pick a Twitter battle with the contract? We are in the middle of an emergency. It's a humanitarian crisis of proportions that we really never imagined. And the controller approved emergency procurement and we invite him to continue to work with us with our team, his staff to complete the contractual work, not only this one, but obviously there are tens and tens of contracts that we've had to get approved. And I also want to take this opportunity to invite public officials to come see the humanitarian centers, to see the services that are being delivered there. This is an emerging crisis. Every day throws us a new curveball. And so there's a lot of adjusting that goes on and evaluation and correction and improvement. So we invite a positive engagement with the controller. I don't think so. No. Yeah, I don't think so. And they'll correct me if I'm wrong. Yeah. George tells me no. Oh, George says no. Okay. Thank you. Hi, Liz. We are. Thank you for that question. We are definitely running out of room. I did get noticed last night that we were expecting six buses today, which again, I want us to think about this. What are we 13, 14 months into this? And we're still getting buses when we already have 112,000 people that we're taking care of that is not sustainable. Certainly can't be sustained by by the city alone. When I, the last time I was at the Roosevelt, every space was taken up. You'd see moms, you see packing place set up. So I'm not surprised to see that that every inch of the Roosevelt is being used. And we took Chris's point earlier. We're trying to do the best that we can to free up space and hotel rooms so that we can have more space for families with children. It's a, it's a dire situation. Yeah. So I think I'm going to go back to what the commissioner said, which is that, you know, with over 100,000 folks coming into our shelter system, we have been working with the control. I was actually with him this afternoon at the legal clinic where we were able to go through to take a tour of that to see how we would be able to expand that and do that very important work. We all have different roles to play. Our role is to make sure that we are opening up sites and that we're doing that correctly and that people are staying safe. And so we are going to hope to continue to work with the controller in order to do that so that we don't have anybody sleeping on the street. We're not going to get into the whole process of the contractual process. We will do what we need to do to make sure that nobody is sleeping on. No families with children is sleeping on the streets here. So I don't know the answer to that. I'm not aware of that. I don't think so, but we can follow up on that so that I don't give you an incorrect answer. Okay. Yes, of course. Well, this is the opening of a new human crisis center. We have already assembled 15 of them through the city. In collaboration with the other departments in the city. It will accommodate 1,000 people in five floors. It will provide them with daily meals, medical services, social services, and opportunities to be able to travel, to connect with families in other parts of the country. All that happens daily in these centers. And it's an immense job, obviously, because they continue to arrive daily. Last night, six buses arrived. Last week, almost 2,400 new people arrived here. And this continues. We already have 112,000 people who arrived in the city. 60,000 of them are in our care. It's an immense job. We made a commitment as a city, but as the deputy says, we need the collaboration of the President of the United States, the Congress, and the State of New York, which continues to help the city of New York to be able to handle this crisis. I'm hearing about New York City and what they get when they come to New York City. Since we have a front door that's open, people are finding themselves here. To what extent do you think the policies in New York incentivize folks to come to New York and to America? Every time you make me nervous when you say you're going to tell me my own words. And I was like, no! I was like, that is what I said, and it is true. I was like, they're very wise words. So, no, I would still say, and I was looking at this the other day, because I think there was an article where Governor Abbott was talking about how many people he's bussed to New York City. And the number was, what, 13,000? And if we know that we have 59,000 that are here now, we know that people are not just coming on buses. So that's the first answer. But I haven't gotten six buses a day in a very long time. I 100%, and I think that this has been confirmed by some discussions that were had at the federal level, that before it was kind of the right to shelter and what's going on in New York City was like our little secret. Now the whole globe knows that if you go to New York City, we're going to do what we always do, right? We have a big heart. We have compassion. We're going to take care of people. You're going to get a hotel room. You're going to get school, open arms. And while we love that and we are so proud of that, I think in a way it's being used against us. And I am, like, frustrated by that. And I would like some help about that. And I would like to kind of slow down what's happening at the front door a little bit. I think Chicago and Philadelphia and other places are able to be like, stay here for 30 days, but then, you know, on day 31, you could go to New York City and then they'll take care of you. That doesn't seem fair to me, because then it puts us in a situation where we have to make impossible decisions. And I think that's why we're in part of the situation. And honestly, if we didn't have the right to shelter, I think we would still get people, but I think that it would be a little less in terms of the messaging, which is that there's a wide open front door right now. I think that this is a national issue. And I think we shouldn't be penalized for who we are, but I do think that there are solutions to this if we work together. No, let me take out the thing, Noah. I know that there are solutions to this if we work together as a state and a federal government. And I don't see why we are the ones who are having a humanitarian response. I've seen what other parts of the country are doing, but there's no fingers pointing to other parts of the country. They're pointing to us and being like, you guys shouldn't be so nice and you shouldn't do what you do. I feel like that's crazy. I also know that New Yorkers are frustrated and we feel like we're almost in a way of being taken advantage of and we're kind of at the end of our ropes. We'll now take some questions via Webex. We'll go to Marcia Cramer first. Marcia, you can now unmute your line, please. Yes, we can. Tomorrow is the first day of school and there are estimates now that there'll be about 20,000 children of migrants who are going to be going into New York City schools. But the head of the UFT says that it could be chaotic because some of the migrants who live in shelters may end up going to one school, but then when they get vouchers, at some point in the school year, you may have to transfer to another. How is that going to be good practice for these kids who are going to be uprooted once or twice during this process? So, Marcia, thank you for the question and I think we really had, when the chancellor was here last week, we had an extensive conversation about all the work that they're doing in Project Open Arms. I don't want to talk about New York City traumatizing children. I want to talk about the trauma of children coming and making their way up to this place and having a national government that cares enough about the children that are making their way here to make sure that they get what they need. We are going to figure it out. I promise you that. There's a couple of first days of children not getting to the exact right place. We will figure it out and they will be in a good place. What I would like is for the whole nation and other people to do what we're doing, which is to make sure that we're giving children and families what they need and that we are addressing this immigration crisis in the way that it needs to be addressed, not by putting it on the backs of New Yorkers in a DOE system, in a HPD system, in a homelessness system. It just doesn't make sense, you all. Thank you. Our last question will be Morgan McKay. Morgan, you can now unmute your line, please. Mayor, can you hear me? Ooh, did she call me the mayor? Deputy Mayor. Thank you. Don't get me in trouble now. No, thank you so much. I was just wondering, has there been any progress in conversation with the governor and moving migrants upstates? And also, would you guys like to see the lawmakers host a special session return before January to talk about funding or anything else? So thank you for the question and I would say that there is progress. I feel like everyone is approaching this as if it's, you know, let me think about what I can do and let me think and let me talk to the nonprofits and maybe we have some solutions and they're approaching this as an intellectual issue. We have 100,000 people that are in our care right now. Six buses coming, 2700 people that come a week. I think there's a sense of urgency that somehow it seems like only New York City has that sense of urgency. So the answer to all of your questions is yes. I would like people to be resettled upstate quicker. I would like the legislature to do whatever they can. I would like work authorization, federal declaration, all of those things that we've been calling for and I would like them now. Thank you for joining us, folks. That's it for today.