The controversial migrant encampment at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field will remain for another year, The Post has learned.
The National Parks Service, which oversees the historic former airfield off Flatbush Avenue, notified city officials Friday it has agreed to the Adams administration’s request for a lease extension to continue operating the 2,000-bed tent city.
The original lease was set to expire Saturday.
“This extension request was thoroughly reviewed and responds to the State of New York’s continued emergency declaration,” wrote Jennifer T. Nersesian, superintendent of Gateway National Recreation Area, a part of the National Park Service.
“As stewards of this site, visitor access, public safety, and preservation of natural and cultural resources are our top priorities,” she added. “Our team has worked to ensure Floyd Bennett Field remains accessible to the public while the lease is in place and will continue to do so for the extension of the lease.”
Since the migrant shelter was set up, residents of Brooklyn’s Marine Park, the Rockaways and other nearby sleepy communities have complained the new arrivals are bringing more shoplifting, panhandling, gutter scams and other unsavory activity to their neighborhoods.
“The people who live in Rockaway and [southern] Brooklyn have been extremely clear on this: they do not want a shelter in Floyd Bennett Field,” fumed Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens), upon learning of the extension.
“I will keep searching for ways to reverse the shelter-city status and end the migrant crisis. We cannot keep pouring taxpayer dollars into a failed project that endangers New Yorkers and diverts much-needed city funds from those who need them most.”
Gov. Hochul last year agreed to have the state pick up the $1,733,750 monthly lease payments for the city to operate the tent shelter, while the Big Apple is on the hook for $625,000 yearly to bus migrant students away from the transportation desert for school.
Last week, dozens of activists, pols and other fed-up New Yorkers rallied outside the massive shelter in a bid to block the lease extension. The protest included a caravan of more than 30 vehicles and was the latest in a series of demonstrations against the asylum-seeker encampment.
Paul Martinka
The former airfield had become a hotbed of unrest and violence, with a domestic assault in December, a gun bust and a string of assault arrests, police said.
In January, migrants, including children, had to be briefly evacuated from the site in the middle of the night as dangerous winds raised concerns of toppled tents or fatal flooding.
Despite the local outrage, City Hall has said the ad-hoc shelter is needed to help accommodate new arrivals as more than 214,000 migrants poured into NYC over the past two years.
Providing housing and other services to migrant arrivals has already cost city taxpayers more than $5 billion.
