The Adams administration is weighing a plan to impose curfews on migrant shelters across the city, the Post has learned, after neighbors raised complaints of people going door to door begging for food and clothes.
Molly Schaeffer, the mayor’s director of Asylum Seeker Operations, said curfews were “something they were looking into” during a meeting with local lawmakers on Thursday.
The issue was raised at the meeting by Queens Councilwoman Joann Ariola, who pointed out that a 10 p.m. curfew was already being enforced at homeless shelters across the city. The councilwoman suggested similar measures for migrants might mitigate the panhandling problem.
“I asked questions about the possibility of a curfew at migrant shelters. I think a curfew should be set because homeless people [staying in NYC shelters] have curfews,” Ariola told The Post.
“If it’s good enough for homeless New Yorkers it’s good enough for migrants.”
There has been an alarming increase in complaints from people living near the shelters that have sprung up across the city in recent months to accommodate the overwhelming influx of migrants shipped to the Big Apple from the southern border.
One Brooklyn resident, 62-year-old David Fitzgerald, described the situation in his Marine Park neighborhood as an “invasion.”
“I see them sitting outside stores … outside the mall and going around to all the houses in the neighborhood, knocking on the door looking for money,” Fitzgerald said back in December.
“There is definitely a lot of nervousness in the neighborhood, that is for sure.”
Fitzerald lives near Floyd Bennett Field, where the Adams administration has set up an elaborate tent shelter which has been mired in controversy since it opened in November.
Some migrants have raised safety concerns about the shelter, including complaints that the structure’s fragile ceiling falls apart during heavy winds. In addition, many have refused to stay there due to its isolation from the city and schools.
Because of its isolation, nearby residents say migrants have been walking into their residential neighborhoods and begging to get help.
“It’s alarming,” said 30-year resident Paul Sanzone, 52, who described migrants coming to his door on a “regular basis.”
Sanzone and his wife been left “on edge” after two migrants who appeared to be wearing ankle monitors came to their home asking for food.
Many residents expressed their sympathy for the migrants but said the city was to blame for taking them in and then failing to provide adequate support.
“I don’t think they should be at Floyd Bennett Field anyway. It’s not a good living environment for people, certainly for families,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s just not good enough and if there is no room for them to be here, then they should not be here.”
A spate of crime at some shelters — including drug dealing, and even a fatal stabbing at the Randall’s Island tent city over the weekend — has also left residents concerned about the situations near them.
Adams has discussed plans to install metal detectors and other security measures at the shelters to try to solve the problem.
During Thursday’s meeting, officials said metal detectors were still being “strongly considered,” but did not mention when they might be implemented.
A spokesperson for City Hall, Kayla Mamelak, said the administration was considering all options to ensure safety around migrants after members of the NYC community raised their concerns.
