Mamdani to close NYC's last emergency migrant shelter by end of year

The Mamdani administration plans to close New York City's last remaining emergency migrant shelter by the end of the year, according to a planning document released on Thursday.

The megashelter located at Bruckner Boulevard in the South Bronx opened in February 2025 and houses nearly 2,000 residents.

The site’s closure would finally shut the door on the city’s emergency shelter system for migrants that has accommodated more than 240,000 asylum-seekers, largely under previous Mayor Eric Adams.

But homeless advocates said the more than 250 sites propped up by the city — including at hotels and sprawling tent shelters at Floyd Bennett Field and on Randall’s Island — created a shadow system with less stringent rules and accommodations than traditional city shelters.

As the migrant shelter population has declined in recent years, the city has begun to close migrant-only shelters and transition asylum-seekers to more traditional shelters accommodating all New Yorkers. Starting next year with the closure of the South Bronx site, the city will no longer shelter new arrivals and longtime New Yorkers separately.

Shortly after taking office Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered the city’s Department of Social Services to come up with a plan to phase out its remaining emergency migrant shelter and bring other shelters into compliance with city rules — such as providing kitchens for families with children and limiting shelter to no more than 200 people.

The six-page plan said the last migrant megasite operating outside the traditional shelter system will shutter by December with residents relocated to beds run by the city’s Department of Homeless Services. Other department sites that were quickly erected for migrants but defy local shelter laws will be downsized, relocated or otherwise brought up to code, according to the plan.

The city also plans to open new shelters delayed under the Adams administration and increase the number of people leaving the shelter system and moving into permanent housing.