NYC has quietly halted the free bus service for migrants arriving at the Port Authority Terminal in midtown Manhattan to the welcome center near Grand Central, The Post has confirmed.
Asylum advocates on the ground told The Post that the city moved to halt migrant transport services to the Roosevelt Hotel migrant welcome center over the Fourth of July holiday.
Instead of a bus ride, members of the National Guard are now tasked with handing out fliers that show the newcomers how to walk across Midtown Manhattan – even if the migrants arrive in the middle of the night.
Officials confirmed they put the brakes on the hospitality program to cut costs, even as the city spends $7.9 million a day to care for the 52,600 asylum seekers currently in its care. The free bus reversal was first reported by Gothamist Sunday.
“With hundreds of asylum seekers continuing to arrive daily (not just through the PABT), we need the limited number of MTA busses that have been provided by the state to transport asylum seekers from the Arrival Center to their placements,” a City Hall spokesperson said.
“National Guard will be stationed at the Port Authority providing flyers with directions to the arrival center — an approximately 15 minute walk.
“As we’ve said, we continue to need assistance from the state and federal government to tackle this crisis, and welcome volunteers to continue to do their best to help support asylum seekers’ needs.”
More than 84,100 asylum seekers had been welcomed to the boroughs since last spring, according to the city.
Those who arrived at the bus terminal in May and June were taken across town to the landmark art-deco hotel, where they were treated to lunch in the gilded grand ballroom where Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians once popularized the New Year’s Eve tune “Auld Lang Syne.”
Since the buses stopped, a non-profit stepped in to give the new arrivals a warm welcome by spending about $1,000 for ride shares from Port Authority to the Roosevelt.
Power Malu, of Artists Athletes Activists Inc, discovered the buses were no longer running on the Fourth of July, with Port Authority police telling him the city was “short staffed,” he recalled.
“Because it was July 4th it was peak, we had to call 8 of them. So it was like 35 times 8 – about $280 dollars because it was one bus.”
Malu’s group continued the effort on the 7th and 8th when no buses arrived to ferry new arrivals from Texas across town.
“There is no way we are going to allow families who are tired and hungry to walk,” the advocate said.
“I said I’m going to put them in Ubers and Lyfts.”
“Buses are provided when requested by the city for emergency situations and when that occurs, discussions follow about sustained feasibility and reimbursement for associated costs,” MTA Communications Director Tim Minton told The Post.