A luxury hotel in the middle of Times Square, touted as the “Lullaby of Broadway,” will be used to provide housing for the asylum-seeking migrants being bused to New York City from Texas and homeless and vagrant people, according to a report by the New York Post.
The hotel, Row NYC, will be converted into an intake center and shelter for as many as 600 households. A hotel staff member told the Post that negotiations with the city’s Department of Homeless Solutions are ongoing, but the hotel’s transformation will likely be completed in a month or two.
An undisclosed number of floors in Row NYC will be devoted to the shelter, and it is unknown what the plan will cost or who will run the operation. However, New York City taxpayers will bear the cost.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams complained in July that migrants were overrunning the city’s homeless shelters. The mayor called on President Joe Biden to “send additional federal resources” to assist in the crisis.
The city’s government had already leased out nearly a dozen hotels to house the homeless population, as the city was dealing with a severe homeless and vagrancy crisis even before migrants began arriving. Row NYC, however, will be by far the most luxurious of the contracted buildings.
Guests at the hotel are greeted by a carpeted section of sidewalk at its entrance, similar to a red carpet movie premiere.
The internet lounge in the lobby offers six Mac computers that provide 30 minutes of free web surfing. The hotel also has a third-floor fitness center with treadmills, elliptical machines, recumbent bicycles, and free weights.
“Standard” rooms at the hotel with one full or queen bed range in price from $414.42 to $435.07 per night, including taxes and “facilities fees” depending on the view.
Mayor Adams has criticized Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for the busing program, which has seen Texas send dozens of buses full of migrants awaiting their asylum case hearings to Washington, D.C., and NYC.
“I already called all my friends in Texas and told them how to cast their votes,” Adams said during a press conference last week. “And I am deeply contemplating taking a busload of New Yorkers to go to Texas and do some good old-fashioned door knocking because we have to, for the good of America, we have to get him out of office.”
The Texas governor began busing migrants to Washington, D.C., in April, in response to record border crossings along the southern border. Texas sent the first busload of migrants in early August to New York City.
Abbott argues the policies of those in power in D.C. and New York are responsible for the ongoing border crisis.
“In addition to Washington, D.C., New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city,” Abbott said in an August 5 press release.
“I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief,” Gov. Abbott added.
In total, NYC has received 900 migrants from Texas over the month. In contrast, at times more than 7,500 people unlawfully cross the Texas border every day.