Brooklyn residents are outraged over the city's decision to place a 400-bed migrant shelter just 1,000 feet from an elementary school. Parents and school leaders are concerned about the lack of transparency and the potential safety risks posed by the shelter's proximity to the school.
As New York City students prepare to return to class, residents in Brooklyn are expressing outrage over city officials' decision to open an all-male migrant shelter just feet away from an elementary school. The 400-bed migrant shelter opened in Gowanus in April, approximately 1,000 feet from City Life Academy, a private Christian K-12 school.
School leaders and residents in the Brooklyn neighborhood were left outraged over an alleged lack of transparency from city leaders, as well as the proximity of the shelter to the school. Brooklyn mom Irina Edelstein expressed her concerns on "Fox & Friends First," stating that she worries about the safety of her children.
Brooklyn Residents Furious After Migrant Shelter Opens Near Elementary School
"I try not to worry about this too much," Edelstein said. "There's enough running around and getting ready for school as it is. And, trying not to let anxiety get to me."
City officials have been accused of not following environmental testing protocols and violating other building codes to accelerate the shelter's opening. An investigation by the International Women's Forum (IWF) revealed these alleged violations.
Brooklyn Residents Furious After Migrant Shelter Opens Near Elementary School
"Our school hosted the meeting where council members said that ‘we reached out to all the schools, we spoke to all the principals,’ which is absolutely not true," Edelstein said.
The NYC Mayor's Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Brooklyn Residents Furious After Migrant Shelter Opens Near Elementary School
Brooklyn is facing an overwhelming surge of migrants, as over 200,000 migrants have descended on New York City since the spring of 2022. The migrant surge has prompted the city to cut budgets and allocate more spending for sanctuary city services. New York City is soon projected to have spent more than $5 billion over the last two years on the migrant crisis.
Along with expenses, the migrant surge has also led to a rise in crime, including high-profile crimes like the attack on NYPD officers earlier this year and a migrant accused of raping a woman at knifepoint earlier this month.
Edelstein recounted one time when an alleged migrant was spotted trying to break into her car while she was picking up her children from school.
"I was walking back to my car and one parent stopped me and she said, there are two guys [that] just walked by your car and tried to open it while you were inside the school. And she said that looked like the guys who were residents of the nearby shelter," she told host Todd Piro.
Residents and school leaders have called for increased transparency and a reassessment of the shelter's location. They believe that the shelter should not be placed so close to a school, and argue that city officials have not done enough to address the concerns of the community.
