Opinion by Post Editorial Board
The latest display of progressive empathy for “asylum seekers” (read: illegal immigrants) in New York City can be found in a shocking increase in the homeless shelter population.
The number living in the shelter system soared 53% over the past year, per the latest figures from Mayor Adams’ preliminary management report.
The data comes from year-on-year comparisons between the first fiscal quarters, July through October.
The 2023 quarter saw 83,985 people in shelters on average per day; the 2022 one, “only” 54,738.
When you drill down into the data on families, the picture becomes even grimmer.
The numbers show a horrific 147% rise in entries to shelters for families with children.
The shelter beast never sleeps or stops eating in Gotham, with more than 210 emergency shelters opened.
More than 100 hotels have been converted into shelters, at a cost topping $1 billion.
NYC homeless shelter population has skyrocketed to 53% over the past year, per the latest figures from Mayor Adams’ preliminary management report. Aristide Economopoulos
And the overall cost to the city to the migrant flood — $12 billion by the end of fiscal 2025 — is premised on inflows zeroing out, no sign of which is on the horizon.
So average New Yorkers will keep feeling the fiscal crush, and migrants will keep getting jammed into a shelter system not equipped to handle them.
Don’t let Big Apple progressives, or our caught-short mayor, plead extraordinary circumstances.
Yes, the inflows are unprecedented.
But they’re unprecedented because migrants know the city is a rich bed of free handouts, thanks to the leftist insanity that underpins social policy.
Though Adams has changed his tune, he did make clear as the first waves hit that Gotham is a sanctuary city and proudly welcomed them.
Even after the scope and scale of the crisis became apparent, he refused to fundamentally challenge the absurd right to the shelter that has tied New York’s hands for decades when it comes to our homeless.
The idea that more than 170,000 illegal migrants are somehow legally guaranteed a place to live, no matter the circumstances, is as morally obscene as it is legally questionable.
And now we see the results.
A shelter system strained to the breaking point.
High-schoolers booted into remote “learning” to make room for migrant families.
Migrants knocking on doors around the Floyd Bennett Field shelter to panhandle.
Violent rampages against the police, that thanks to other leftist policies go unpunished.
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The resources of New Yorkers are now stretched to the utmost, as is their patience.
Yet still the tide rolls on, and it’s clear only radical political change will end it.
Removing Democrats, progressives and socialists from city and state government is a good start at fixing the problem. Mass deportation is another. But just know NY, the problem is going to get worse. Ten million have crossed, the number going to your city is only going to increase with the number coming across.