New York City officials want large venues outside the Big Apple — such as the vacant Nassau Coliseum in nearby Long Island — to be considered for emergency shelters as the city grapples with the tens of thousands of migrants flooding into the city.
Nearly 200 migrant shelters have been set up across all five boroughs, including two mass “tent cities” – one on the sprawling grounds of Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens which will house 1,000 single-adult migrants and the other on Randall’s Island with 2,000 beds in Manhattan.
“NYC is doing more than its fair share. Unused or underutilized assets — certainly the Nassau Coliseum — should be looked at by the state,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.
The original home of the New York Islanders starting in 1972, the Coliseum now sits empty after the NHL team moved to the new UBS arena in Belmont Park in 2021.
“The Nassau Coliseum should be considered as a migrant facility. The coliseum is not next to any houses. It’s not next to anything,” said Hazel Dukes, president of the state chapter of the NAACP and ally of Mayor Eric Adams.
“We just don’t have enough space in New York City to house all the migrants,” she said.
But Dukes said suburban Nassau has “not in my backyard” mentality when it comes to migrants.
County Executive Bruce Blakeman confirmed that he won’t allow migrants at the coliseum — or anywhere on his turf.
“Nassau County is not a sanctuary county,” the Republican politician told The Post Wednesday.
More than 100,000 asylum seekers have poured into the city since early 2022, and roughly 60,000 are currently being housed in the nearly 200 city-run emergency shelters scattered across the five boroughs.
While City Hall did not respond to The Post’s request for comment, Mayor Eric Adams sounded the alarm earlier this month that the migrant crunch could set the city back a whopping $12 billion over the next three years.
“This is the greatest challenge our city has faced in decades,” Adams told the rally. “We’ve got to get it right.”