NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D-NY) praised the city for keeping homelessness percentages low despite receiving a large influx of migrants.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Same old.
00:02So the Post reported over the weekend on the, this open drug use outside of some places
00:08in Midtown, many transit hubs and tourist locations.
00:11You know, just wondering what your administration is looking to do to address this.
00:14Do you think it's having any effect on tourism specifically in New York City?
00:19And any other comment you'd like to make on that?
00:21And also just, and this might be more for the Deputy Mayor, so the number of asylum
00:28seekers has been kind of steady.
00:29Oh no, no, no.
00:30I'm sorry.
00:31I was thinking about the question.
00:32So this, so the asylum seekers over the last, I guess, like five, six months now has been
00:42around 1,200 to 1,400 every week coming in.
00:46But we're still stagnant on this number of around 65,000 that are in the city shelters.
00:51And this is on top of having a 30 and 60 day rule being in effect.
00:54Is there any talks of maybe making a stricter rule for 30 and 60 days?
00:58Is there any other policies in the works?
00:59Because it just doesn't seem to be really moving the needle at this point.
01:02I know it decreased a little bit once it went from, you know, 3,000 to 4,000 a week.
01:07But since then, since it's been at 1,200 to 1,400, it hasn't gone down.
01:10Well, we've had 200,000 that has entered our city.
01:15And we're still getting, like you state, those who are coming in.
01:20And when you look at it, of 200,000, as the Daily News editorial page pointed out, how
01:31we're handling this, D.M. Williams-Issam should really be commended on being able to do this.
01:39And when you, that's a nice little quote, and when you look at the overall homeless
01:46issue, I think that if there's one place that this administration is going to be really
01:54acknowledged for successfully handling is this issue right here.
02:00The large influx, the continuous influx that's coming in, and it has not stopped, with the
02:06combination of the Chief of Staff and D.M. Williams-Issam and their team, you know, it's
02:12to not look like other cities and even our homeless population.
02:16Do we have the chart of the homeless population?
02:19See that little small, little blue, all the way to the far left, that's New York.
02:26Percentage of population experiencing homelessness living unsheltered.
02:32New York is the smallest number, that's that little small bar, I was never good at reading
02:37these bars in school, but now I realize the importance of that class.
02:43We are doing a good job.
02:45I walked down 34th and 8th Avenue, I was on the street, walking down, talking to those
02:51who were living in those conditions, and Michael, I don't remember the faces of all of them.
02:56You know, I met a lot of people when I was walking that day on 8th Avenue and 34th Street
03:00at 10 a.m., 10 p.m., and there are limitations on what we could do.
03:08If someone is just sitting there and they are under the influence of drugs, we can't
03:18lock them up.
03:19You know, there are real rules on what we can do, and we have to abide by those rules,
03:24and that's what we're doing.
03:25But we're constantly monitoring the situation.
03:28D.M. Williams-Issam team, Molly Parks and others, we're sending teams out there to give
03:33them the care.
03:34Some people don't want that care.
03:36Some people, it just takes a long time to build up.
03:40And even Norman Siegel, who has really helped by getting a group of volunteers, he has been
03:45extremely helpful around this.
03:47But it is a challenge, because of how our laws are written in this city, you cannot
03:53walk up to someone that appears to be under the influence of some substance and state
03:59that you're going to remove them from where they are.
04:02We're using every tool possible as an important piece of real estate, and we want to continue
04:07to attract tourism, which we are doing, but we have to do it within the law.
04:13I just want to add, when you were talking about the census, three thoughts I had.
04:19One is that when you look at it, it is going down.
04:21It's going down slowly.
04:23And when I think about the fact that we're just really starting extenuating circumstances,
04:27and so we—you know, people have 30 days, and unless there's an extraordinary circumstance
04:31that we're going to be asking them to leave the system, I think we're seeing some of
04:34that happen right now.
04:36The third thing, Craig, is that the summertime is a great time to resettle children and families,
04:40and so we're going to be working really closely with the state in order to do that.
04:44And so I'm very excited about this opportunity now that kids will be getting out of school
04:48soon to really see where are the places that other people want to resettle.
04:52So right now, there's no plans to increase another policy, but again, we'll look at
04:56the numbers really closely.
04:58The only other thing I wanted to add to what the mayor said is that what I like—one of
05:01the things I like most about working here for the city is the way that all different
05:05agencies have been working together for these complicated issues.
05:08And so whether it's the Department of Health, along with Homeless Services, along with the
05:12Police Department, along with Sanitation, along with our nonprofits, places like at
05:17Central Park or on 125th Street or places where there's, you know, really intense
05:23issues, we're working together to figure out what is it that we can be doing better
05:27to really get people connected to treatment.
05:29And when you look at that precinct, crime is down.
05:33We have a 14 percent decrease in crime go up to—into June.
05:40So the precinct commanders are doing the right thing.
05:42They're on the street.
05:43But I cannot overemphasize this chart.
05:45I mean, look at this chart.
05:48Look at—and none of them have 200,000 migrants and asylum seekers that we have to care for,
05:52feed, house, educate.
05:54Look at L.A.
05:55Look at Portland.
05:56Look at Vegas.
05:57Look at Phoenix.
05:58Look at San Diego.
05:59We're a victim of our success, because no one is—no one is seeing the tent.
06:05The tents that are out there, no one is seeing the encampments.
06:08We're a victim of our success.
06:10And I really hope that all you guys and ladies go on the road show this year and go look
06:14at these cities.
06:17Go visit these cities, and then come back here and say,
06:21Deputy Mayor Williams Issam, job well done.