NYC Plans to Use Midtown Manhattan Roosevelt Hotel As Migrant Housing

NEW YORK (New York Daily News/TNS) — City officials plan to reopen the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan as a migrant housing and resource center, Mayor Adams said Saturday.

In the coming days, the hotel will open up 175 rooms for children and families, the city’s announcement said. Ultimately, the city plans to open a total of 850 rooms in the hotel for children and families.

Another 150 rooms will be set aside for migrants who are stopping in New York on their way to other locations, the city said.

Also, the hotel will serve “as a centralized intake center for all arriving asylum seekers and providing migrants with access to a range of legal, medical, and reconnection services, as well as placement, if needed, in a shelter or humanitarian relief center,” the announcement said.

The storied hotel, on E. 45th St. at Madison Ave. steps from Grand Central Terminal, shut its doors to guests in October 2020, battered by the pandemic.

The city has cared for more than 65,000 asylum seekers and has opened more than 140 emergency shelters and eight large-scale humanitarian relief centers, Adams said in the statement.

But the mayor pleaded for more state or federal aid to deal with the influx. “Without federal or state assistance, we will be unable to continue treating new arrivals and those already here with the dignity and care that they deserve,” Adams said.