The Floyd Bennett Field migrant shelter for families with children drew condemnation from all points of the political spectrum since it opened last year.
Those sympathetic to the new arrivals raised concerns about the remote location and difficulties and dangers of the group setting for young kids, while those unhappy with their presence protested and complained about complaints about crime and quality of life concerns.
Now, both sides are renewing efforts to pressure the city to close the 2,000-person tent shelter, just two months after the city extended its lease with the federal government until next September.
Local Republicans see an opening to convince the incoming Trump administration to close the facility down once and for all. And advocates for the migrants living there say they’re particularly vulnerable to immigration crackdowns as residents of the only city shelter situated on federal land.
“We’re concerned about it becoming a site for mass sweeps,” said Ariana Hellerman, who works with the volunteer group Floyd Bennett Field Neighbors that has provided meals, clothing, supplies and suitcases for families.
The organization is calling for the city to find stable homes for families living there in the next 60 days and for the city to close down the shelter, and dismantle the tents, before Donald Trump takes office.
Chandler Miranda, another volunteer with the Floyd Bennett Neighbors, said at a hearing last week that she fears Floyd Bennett Field could be used by the incoming administration as an immigration detention center, as Trump is reportedly eyeing housing such centers in the vicinity of so-called sanctuary cities.
“We really would love to see the closure and removal of the infrastructure at Floyd Bennett Field so that it cannot be used as a detention facility by the federal administration,” Miranda said. “It is, to my knowledge, the only shelter that exists on federal land right now and has the infrastructure that is being described as needed for large-scale detention facilities near sanctuary cities.”
Local Republicans who have opposed the migrant shelter since before it opened are also renewing their pushing for its closure under President Trump. The original lease, extended recently through September 2025, contained a provision allowing either the city or the National Parks Service to cancel the lease with a 90-day warning.
Natalie Baldassare, a spokesperson for Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Brooklyn/Staten Island), said she’d already spoken with House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) about a plan to cancel the lease once Trump takes office, and intends to discuss it with Trump’s team. Westerman’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Republican Councilmember Joann Ariola, who represents part of the Rockaway Peninsula across Jamaica Bay from Floyd Bennett Field, said she is also optimistic Trump will shut the facility down.
“I think he’s going to be reviewing all of the leases with federal properties to see how they’re being used,” she said, pointing to an increase in shoplifting and panhandling that had disrupted surrounding areas. “These are things that really do impact the quality of life in those communities.”
Kayla Mamelak, a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams, said it is the administration’s intention to close all the large-scale migrant shelters, known as Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers, but didn’t say if the city planned to expedite the closure of Floyd Bennett Field.
“We continue to look closely at all of our shelters and will make all determinations based on what’s best for our city and those in our care,” Mamelak said, adding that the city’s efforts, including helping people apply for asylum, had lead to more than 165,000 people moving out of city shelters over the past two years.
“We are seeing real results from our hard work, including the ability to continue consolidating operations,” Mamelak said. “We have closed four New York City emergency shelters this month, all of our upstate emergency shelters will close by December, and our Randall’s Island shelter is set to close in February.”
Less Than Ideal
When the Floyd Bennett shelter opened last fall, the city was struggling to find room for families, amid a historic surge in the number of new arrivals from the southern border. It was the first time since the 1980s that the city sent young children into a group shelter for a prolonged period.
The large tents are subdivided with partitions so families have individual rooms with doors, but they still share common areas and bathrooms and showers, which are located in trailers near the tents. Even Adams administration officials have conceded that sending young families to remote tents on an abandoned airfield was a desperate measure.
“Nobody from the city thinks having families with children living out at Floyd Bennett Field is ideal,” Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol said last December, following a chaotic evening during which hundreds of residents had to evacuate in the dead of night to a nearby school due to high winds. “This is what was given to us by the state by the federal government.”
In the months since, residents made do, many moving out when they’d saved up enough money, settling in other parts of the city and the country while new families have moved in. Others have remained there for months.
“I still haven’t gotten used to it,” said Isabel, 42, who has lived at Floyd Bennett shelter with her husband and 18-year-old daughter since February, speaking in Spanish. (She asked that her last name not be published due to the family’s immigration case.) Traversing the cold fields to get to the shelter in the winter months was jarring for the Ecuadorian family, and the ongoing stress of sharing space with so many other families wears on her.
“To avoid fights we stay locked in our room,” Isabel said, adding that her teenage daughter is anxious to move out. “She doesn’t like it, she says ‘Mami, let’s go let’s go.’ But we don’t have jobs.”
‘Significant Concerns’
Actually shutting down the Floyd Bennett Field shelter presents myriad logistical challenges for the city, which is still housing more than 57,000 migrants in emergency shelters, the vast majority of whom are families with children.
There has been a slowdown in the number of newly arrived migrants traveling to New York City and entering shelters, as well as an increase in people leaving the system, that’s led to about a drop in around 10,000 people living in migrant shelters from a year ago.
Still, Kathryn Kliff, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society, said shutting down Floyd Bennett, with other planned closures of Randall’s Island and several Manhattan hotels, in the coming months could test the city’s capacity, as winter hits — a season that tends to see an increase in people seeking shelter.
“It’s just a lot of beds,” Kliff said. “We have significant concerns with the current vacancies, and how they’re going to meet the needs.”
Kliff said she’d discussed the future of Floyd Bennett Field with administration officials in a recent conversation, and expressed concerns about the safety of residents there under the incoming Trump administration.
“They have been very willing to hear our concerns but have not shared their plans, but have made it clear that it’s not going to be a public announcement for a lot of these things,” Kliff said. “They are being very quiet.”
