(RepublicanNews.org) – New York City Mayor Eric Adams is offering free rent for immigrants who relocate out of the city to a home upstate as the demand for housing exceeds the supply.
An estimated 200,000 illegal immigrants have flooded into the Big Apple since Spring 2021, and residents are losing patience as the city transforms before their eyes, a change that kicked off with the pandemic lockdowns and then the election of President Joe Biden. Adams, who has continuously called on Biden to help New York foot the bill for the newcomers, has tried all sorts of strategies to manage the influx of new arrivals, from filling up shelters and converting hotels into shelters to asking residents to open their own homes.
One of Adams’ efforts is the Migrant Relocation Assistance Program, which is tasked with finding homes for immigrant families upstate to take some of the pressure off of the metropolitan area. Of New York’s 62 counties, only five have accepted illegal immigrants from the city under the program: Albany, Erie, Monroe, Suffolk, and Westchester County. Albany authorized up to $25 million for the program last year.
Suffolk County is looking to back out of the program, which will not only relocate immigrant families but will also cover at least a year of their rent. Suffolk County Executive Edward Romaine said his county “is not… a sanctuary city,” and that they “have not agreed” to accept illegal immigrants, demanding Albany provide more “clarification” about what the program entails. Rockland County Executive Ed Day also blasted the program, reminding the Big Apple that they are a sanctuary city, not his county, and that they “asked for it.”
Anne Williams-Isom, deputy mayor for Health and Human Services in New York City, said the program doesn’t involve housing families without work authorization or documentation, but “how many units” are available in these upstate counties. She said people in those counties don’t seem to have “the same sense of urgency… that we do.”
This general disapproval should not be a surprise to Williams-Isom when the so-called “sanctuary city” is trying to get rid of the immigrants they invited in and pass the baton to other areas. So far, the program doesn’t seem to be faring too well, and even The New York Times had to admit that it’s struggling.
Copyright 2024, RepublicanNews.org
