NYC Mayor Eric Adams says incoming migrants could be housed on cruise ships

Mayor Eric Adams is considering using cruise ships as temporary housing as New York City’s shelters become overwhelmed by the large number of migrants arriving in the city.

Adams made his suggestion hours before a record number of nine buses arrived in the city on Sunday, each carrying between 40 and 50 migrants. Additionally, six other buses arrived from El Paso on Saturday.

The large influx of migrants is overwhelming the city’s shelter system, with full-time facilities being overcrowded. In response, the city has opened 23 emergency shelters, but they still do not have enough beds for those in need.

According to Adams, cruise ships can help alleviate the pressure on the city’s shelters. On Monday, the mayor said the city was looking for “creative ways” to address the pressing “humanitarian crisis. The idea to use cruise ships had been previously proposed by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2002 when the city was struggling to respond to a homelessness crisis.

The mayor’s chief of Staff, Frank Carone, spoke with leaders from major cruise ship company Norwegian Cruise Line about the possibility of housing asylum seekers on one of their cruise ships, according to someone familiar with the matter.

The mayor did share any details about the potential floating shelters in the city, but he said the city would be making an official announcement once the plan was finalized.

Mayor Adams also criticized the federal policy for preventing migrants from working before obtaining legal papers.

“We’re saying, ‘You could come here, but you are not allowed to work.’ That is unbelievable,” Adams said, adding that there are shortages in various sectors of the city, including food, health care, and transit.

“We need to look and see what we are facing shortages, how do we go about allowing people to take care of themselves? If not, we, the government, must take care of them. That just makes no sense.”