After a massive tent shelter for migrants arrived on Randall’s Island in August last year, Liz Hurtado said she changed her weekly running route to avoid the new crowds.
She cited catcalls from the newcomers and zig-zagging moped traffic on the pedestrian bridge linking the island across the river to East Harlem, where she lives. Other shelter neighbors said they also wanted to avoid the homeless encampments that sprang up along the river banks.
When Hurtado saw NYPD posters go up in July soliciting information about a fatal shooting nearby, she said she wondered if she should stop going to the island altogether, as some of her neighbors say they have done.
“It’s hard not to judge,” said Hurtado, 37. “It’s hard to stay neutral.”
Fellow East Harlemite Lisbeth Quiñones, 51, put it more bluntly: “They don’t keep the park clean … They ruined it.”
That message has trickled down to migrants living at the 2,200-person shelter. A viral TikTok in Spanish calls the site “The Hell of Randall’s Island.” Juan Miguel, a migrant from the Dominican Republic, said he gets scowls from passersby.
“To me, they’re racists,” said Miguel, 34. “They look at you like you’re not a person.”
The scene on Randall’s Island, where more than 2,000 asylum-seekers live in a tent shelter erected by the city.
Arya Sundaram / Gothamist
Such are the contours of what longtime Randall’s Island neighbors and new arrivals describe as a gulf of resentment and suspicion between the two groups, not unlike the divides that have surfaced elsewhere in the city where large shelters bump up against residential neighborhoods.
The concern has been amplified in recent weeks, with a spate of high-profile crimes involving migrants at the Randall’s Island shelter and across the city and country, and as politicians repeat unsupported claims about a widespread new wave of “migrant crime”
Fueling the local tensions around mega-shelters are also complaints about trash, noise, loitering, and crowds of newcomers encroaching in the city’s limited park space. That’s as debates rage over who deserves access to the government-funded social safety net. The city has spent more than $5 billion on asylum-seekers in the last two years.
The pedestrian bridge spanning the East River, connecting East Harlem to Randall’s Island, where more than 2,000 asylum-seekers live in a tent shelter erected by the city.
Arya Sundaram / Gothamist
In more than two dozen interviews, many migrants living at the Randall’s Island shelter accused their neighbors of stereotyping them, and urged understanding of their plight. Many said they fled persecution or political turmoil in their home countries and are here to support themselves and their families — and that their ultimate goal was to leave the shelter.
Most are awaiting permits to work legally, which asylum-seekers are barred from receiving until six months after filing their asylum application.
“We didn’t bring the violence to North America,” said Jose Balbuena, 26, from Venezuela, in Spanish.
“We want to work, nothing more,” added Jhoinder Artigas, 34, also from Venezuela.
Outside as a haven, inside “like a jail”
A summer ago, as viral images circulated of migrants sleeping on a Midtown sidewalk, Mayor Eric Adams proclaimed that the city’s shelter system had reached “its breaking point.”
His administration soon erected a sprawling tent shelter on a strip of soccer fields at Randall’s Island, a relatively remote area with large swaths of parkland and enclaves of brick-and-mortar homeless shelters, among other government buildings.
Much of the criticism against this shelter has focused on the crowds of migrants, many of whom are asylum-seekers, congregating on the grassy river banks right outside the shelter, at the foot of the Ward’s Island Bridge connecting the island to East Harlem.
But in between work shifts, or attempts to find a job, shelter residents said the space outside has provided a much-needed haven.
Some use the pedestrian walkway to earn money as street vendors, as new immigrants in New York City have done for centuries. Along the pedestrian walkway on a recent afternoon, a Senegalese migrant sold coffee and sandwiches d’omelette fried on a camper stove. A duo from Venezuela sold cold drinks and snacks they said they haul in a shopping cart from a Costco more than a mile away.
The scene on Randall’s Island, where more than 2,000 asylum-seekers live in a tent shelter erected by the city. The city has been clearing out makeshift encampments erected by migrants near the city-run shelter, only to see new encampments go up.
Arya Sundaram / Gothamist
Many shelter residents, while grateful for the accommodations, complained of the conditions inside: dozens of rows of head-to-toe cots, alleged insults from guards and unsatisfying food. They said petty thefts and fights are common, often over trivial issues. Some said they spend time outside to avoid getting their phones stolen, a common occurrence.
Balbuena, from Venezuela, said, “It’s like a jail.” The same description was echoed by others.
In January, there were two stabbings at the shelter, one fatal. And other brawls have broken out in recent months.
But lately, what’s happened beyond the shelter tent walls has gotten the most attention.
A Venezuelan mother was fatally shot nearby the shelter in July and a man was stabbed outside the site two weeks later, prompting renewed attention to public safety.
Major crimes — such as felony assaults and robberies — on Randall’s Island have more than doubled, from 44 this time last year to 102 so far in 2024, according to NYPD data.
But the per-capita crime rate has largely stayed the same, as the population of the island has more than doubled. About 1,845 people lived on the island as of 2021, according to Census data. The migrant shelter alone has added another 2,000 to 3,000 people to that total.
Across the precinct, which extends into East Harlem, major crimes have declined over the past year. The overall citywide crime rate has gone down, even as local shelters have hosted over 210,000 asylum-seekers in the last two years.
“In partnership with the NYPD, Parks Enforcement Patrol, we continue to enforce the existing rules on Randall’s Island against unpermitted vending, tents,” Adams said in an Aug. 13 press conference. “And we have prioritized educating patrons on the park rules.”
A sign directing visitors to Randall’s Island, where a tent shelter erected by the city houses more than 2,000 asylum-seekers.
Arya Sundaram / Gothamist
In recent weeks, city officials have ramped up nearby police patrols and security and downsized the site by about 800 people, citing safety concerns. Police have also raided the shelter for contraband – later saying they found none — and repeatedly dismantled nearby migrant homeless encampments.
Migrants, immigrant advocates, and community groups say the city’s efforts are not enough to meaningfully improve security. For one, park-goers and migrants alike say extra security guards have done little to address concerns.
And clusters of homeless encampments remain outside the shelter, despite recent efforts to dismantle them.
On a recent visit, some of the migrants sleeping outside said they had been evicted from the shelters under the city’s 30- and 60-day stay limits, and hadn’t received any of the “resources” promised by administration officials to help them relocate.
Conditions inside the shelter contribute to unrest, several residents and Councilmember Diana Ayala, who represents the area, said. Further, the Adams administration’s shelter limits for migrants have only added to the stress, she said.
“People are literally sleeping on top of each other,” said Ayala. “That creates tension.”
Ayala added that she’s hopeful the downsizing “will help alleviate some of the tension there. But it’s not going to do much to help alleviate the stress.”
Pressure to close the shelter
The Randall’s Island Park Alliance threatened to sue the city over the shelter in a letter in May, citing a loss of recreational field space.
Litter has continued to pile up by the shelter, despite their attempts to clean, according to the alliance’s chief of staff, Nicole Galasso. Since the shooting in July, staff have largely been barred from working in the area due to safety concerns, she said.
“I don’t think that facility should be here on the island,” said Darian Martin, a sports field maintenance worker for the alliance. “I don’t think it’s fair to the people who come here for years.”
One park-goer, Nashat Barsoum, said he is largely unbothered by the migrant shelter. Barsoum, 56, who lives in Woodside, Queens, said he wishes the area directly by the shelter were cleaner, but that hasn’t stopped him from taking long strolls around the island.
“It’s not their fault. They’re coming to find a place,” Barsoum said. “The country, if they receive them, they have to take care of them.”
Adams has acknowledged the issues that can arise in massive shelters, and he said he aims to downsize the Randall’s Island shelter, and similar mega-shelters such as in Clinton Hill, as fewer migrants arrive in New York City and apply for shelter.
But he’s said finding other suitable locations has proven to be a challenge, as his administration grapples with the city’s housing shortage and pushback about shelters in other communities.
“In the downsizing, you have to move it to other communities,” Adams said at a press conference on Aug. 20. “And some communities just feel they should not have any shelters at all. That’s just not fair to everyday New Yorkers that do.”