NYC will move migrant tent camp to Randall’s Island after flooding at Orchard Beach in the Bronx

Chris Sommerfeldt, Elizabeth Keogh, New York Daily News
Updated ·2 min read
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NYC will move migrant tent camp to Randall’s Island after flooding at Orchard Beach in the Bronx

After the Bronx tent camp intended to house recently arrived migrants flooded over the weekend, the city is setting up a new site on Randall’s Island in Manhattan instead, Mayor Adams announced late Monday.

“This new location is less prone to flooding, is closer to public transportation, and will provide temporary respite to 500 asylum seekers,” he said in a statement.

The now-defunct camp in the Bronx‘s Orchard Beach parking lot was still under construction Monday. The lot flooded following just .55 inches of rain this past weekend, according to South Bronx Mutual Aid.

The Orchard Beach site was intended to serve over 1,000 migrants, after governors in border states began busing migrants north in protest of the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

“This has the ability to scale if needed, but we’re going to start out with 500,” mayoral spokesman Fabien Levy told the Daily News about the new site, which will be in the parking lot for Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island.

Migrants will begin moving to the island — already the site of numerous homeless shelters — in the coming weeks, he added.

“I’d like to go out to see the area prior to taking a position, but I do have concerns,” Democratic Councilwoman Diana Ayala, whose district includes Randall’s Island, told The News.

She noted there’s only one bus route with access to the island — and that there may be potential flood risks there, too.

Last week, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson voiced concerns over the Orchard Beach location, pointing out that it is prone to flooding.

She also noted the site has limited access to public transportation, with no nearby subway connections and spotty bus service.

Adams’ office could not immediately provide cost estimates for setting up and running the Randall’s Island camp. City Comptroller Brad Lander’s office previously estimated the Orchard Beach site would have cost about $150 million total, and it was not immediately clear if any of that money will go to waste in light of the move to Randalls.

“Moving to Randall’s Island will be more cost-efficient than staying at Orchard Beach and installing the needed flood-mitigation measures to make the site fully viable,” Levy said.

More than 16,000 migrants have come to the Big Apple, according to Adams’ Monday statement — up about 3,000 from its estimate just last week.

The influx stems from a controversial policy by the Republican governors of Arizona and Texas, who began busing migrants out of their states over the summer.