A Growing Number of Homeless Migrants Are Sleeping on N.Y.C. Streets

As New York City officials struggle to provide shelter for nearly 65,000 asylum seekers, some have said they feel safer sleeping in parks, on the subway and on streets.

As New York City grapples with the formidable challenge of housing nearly 65,000 asylum seekers from the southern border, a related problem has emerged: A noticeable and growing number of them are sleeping outside.

An encampment springs to life every evening in a corner of Randall’s Island, home to one of the city’s largest migrant shelters, until dozens of tents dot the riverbank. The sun sets behind the Manhattan skyline as migrants cook over small fires, shower with buckets and wind down to sleep under the stars.

Ten miles south, men from West Africa and Latin America have been huddling for the night on filthy cobblestone beneath a highway overpass near a Brooklyn migrant shelter. A handful of migrants flatten cardboard boxes and lay out bedsheets at a nearby playground. Others ride subway cars or sleep on sidewalks until the sun rises again.

The emerging clusters of unsheltered migrants may be an indicator that two of the city’s most vexing challenges — a two-year influx of migrants and the longstanding issue of street homelessness — are becoming intertwined.

The New York Times interviewed more than a dozen migrants this week who said they have been sleeping outside for up to two months, and spotted many more in early-morning visits to areas around existing migrant shelters.