Why the cover-up?
Workers at the Big Apple’s Roosevelt Hotel migrant shelter abruptly blacked out the windows of its former bar-turned-intake area Tuesday — fewer than 24 hours after The Post exposed that asylum seekers had been sleeping on its floor “for days.”
The staffers — wearing “NYC” badges — scrambled to cover up every window and door that offered a glimpse into the hotel’s old Vander Bar, after it was revealed the area is now an overrun intake center for single adult migrants.
As the windows were being taped up with black trash bags and sheets Tuesday, a shelter employee banged on the glass in a bid to stop a woman from peering inside.
Other staffers came outside and tried to order the media to “move away.”
Before the view being blocked, The Post spotted dozens of migrants holed up inside the former bar early Tuesday — including several asylum seekers curled up on dining chairs.
Multiple other asylum seekers used their belongings as pillows or were dozing upright.
One of the migrants had a “Welcome Back” balloon tied to the back of their chair, although it’s unclear why.
City Hall did not immediately respond to The Post on why it was suddenly blocking the migrants from street view.
The move comes after scores of migrants were pictured sprawled out side-by-side in the middle of the bar’s floor Monday, while nearly a dozen other asylum seekers were spotted dozing upright in their chairs.
“It depends on their situation — they could be there for hours — but most times they could be there for days,” a shelter worker, who didn’t want to be named, said at the time.
The sobering scene came as the first wave of 13,000 single adult migrants were being booted from city shelter sites under its 60 day stay-limit rule.
Under the limit, migrants over reach the two-month timeframe have to vacate their shelter and reapply for a new bed at the Roosevelt Hotel, the city’s main migrant intake center.
While the booted migrants are still guaranteed housing under the city’s “Right to Shelter” law, Mayor Eric Adams last week slashed the stay limit to just 30 days before the asylum seekers have to vacate their room and reapply for another somewhere else.
Currently, there are nearly 60,000 asylum seekers being put up in one of the 200 city-run shelter sites scattered across the five boroughs.