The Watson Hotel located in Midtown Manhattan will be utilized as a temporary housing facility for single male migrants who have found their way to New York City, following an announcement from the city that tent facilities constructed to receive illegal immigrants would be closed after operating for one week.
The tent facilities located on Randall Island, which cost the city over $300,000 to construct and outfit, will be shuttered and migrants from the location — who are all single men — will be transported to the hotel. The Watson Hotel’s website has been updated to alert potential business travelers and tourists to the change, cautioning them that the hotel will remain closed until further notice.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Watson Hotel was one of over 100 hotels that accommodated the city’s homeless at the height of the scourge. Then-mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to end the practice and the city began winding down the program in 2021.
For its part, Governor Eric Adams’ administration blames Texas Governor Greg Abbott for the reversal. Thousands of migrants have been bused into the city from Texas. New York City’s Department of Social Services commissioner Gary Jenkins reiterated the city’s position at a recent hearing. According to Jenkins, the rise in New York’s homeless population is directly attributed to the recent increase in migrants who are seeking asylum. Despite pandemic-era protections for renters expiring, only 1% of the homeless population’s growth can be attributed to evictions.
Members of the city council have had different opinions. Speaking to City Limits, 33rd District Councilmember Lincoln Restler said he had doubts about the city’s explanation. “My strong suspicion is that we are experiencing an increase in the families with children census as a result of the eviction moratorium ending and a regular spike we see in the summer months but are pointing to the immigrant community and asylum-seekers as the rationale,” he said.
Complete with all the trimmings a New York four-star hotel has to offer, the Watson has both an underground fitness center and a rooftop pool.
Mayor Adams released the following statement about the decision:
From the beginning of this humanitarian crisis facing our city, the Council has advocated for Humanitarian Emergency Relief and Recovery Centers (HERRCS) to be sited indoors and identified several large hotels that were not remotely located. People who seek asylum in our city deserve to be treated with dignity, care and compassion, and we always believed this was more appropriate. I’m pleased to see the Administration implement this model that the Council recommended by closing the Randall’s Island HERRC and opening a new site in the Watson Hotel. This is the right approach for these intake services, and there remains important work and policy changes for the City to advance that move people out of shelter, such as removing the 90-day in-shelter requirement for CityFHEPS rental vouchers, and provide the critical supports for the individuals and families seeking asylum and all New Yorkers.
Yellowstone Real Estate Investments purchased the property for $175 million in April of 2021 following the previous owner’s inability to cover the mortgage.
