NYC Health + Hospitals Announces Closure of the Arrival Center and Recognizes Accomplishments of its Humanitarian Emergency Response to the Asylum Seeker Crisis
Arrival Center staff provided intake, medical, social, and reconnection services to more than 155,000 individuals — approximately two thirds of the 237,000 asylum seekers who have arrived in New York City since Spring 2022 The public health system's Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers (HERRCs) have provided shelter to over 140,000 asylum seekers, including over 40,000 children The HERRC Case Management program provided nearly one million case management meetings to asylum seekers, helping over 90% of eligible adults apply for or receive work authorization NYC Health + Hospitals will continue to manage operations of the Row Hotel humanitarian center
Jul 02, 2025
NYC Health + Hospitals today announced the closure of the NYC Arrival Center and the Roosevelt Hotel humanitarian center and recognized the accomplishments of the public health system’s Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center (HERRC) program, which has served as a cornerstone of New York City’s historic response to the international asylum seeker humanitarian crisis. Since first opening its doors in May 2023 through the date of its closure, the Arrival Center provided unified intake, medical, social, and reconnection services to more than 155,000 unique individuals — approximately two thirds of the nearly 240,000 asylum seekers who have come to New York City since Spring 2022. Staff at the Arrival Center have assisted asylum seekers across more than 300,000 visits, providing care to individuals representing over 160 countries and speaking over 60 languages. Over the course of the HERRC program, more than 140,000 people, including over 40,000 children, have been provided temporary shelter and wraparound services at humanitarian centers managed by NYC Health + Hospitals. In addition, the HERRC Case Management program — working in close coordination with its Community Advisory Board (CAB) — provided nearly one million case management meetings to asylum seekers and helped over 90% of eligible adults apply for or receive work authorization.
“New York City has always been, and will always be, a city of immigrants, so it’s easy to forget, that just three years ago, New York City became the forefront of an international humanitarian crisis that eventually peaked at more 4,000 individuals arriving in our city weekly asking for shelter and support. At a moment when others stepped back, New York City stepped up, building a system that provided immediate support, providing over 200,000 life-saving vaccinations, temporary shelter for those in need, and schooling for thousands of children,” said Mayor Adams. “I’m proud that no family with children was forced to sleep on the streets, and that we built, in a moment of urgent need, a nation-leading Asylum Application Help Center that helped over 111,000 people apply for work authorization, TPS, and asylum. We’ve also managed this crisis and helped over 84 percent, or over 200,000 people, move out of our care and take the next steps in their journeys. Our response was a model for cities across the country dealing with the same challenges to use, and while the work continues, our Arrival Center at the Roosevelt Hotel will always stand as a symbol of the work of thousands of city workers, volunteers, faith leaders, and community-based organizations to respond to this historic crisis.”
“At NYC Health + Hospitals, we have always believed that health care is a human right — and at the Arrival Center and our humanitarian centers we put our mission into action for hundreds of thousands of people seeking safety and opportunity,” said NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Dr. Mitchell Katz. “What we built together is historic: a public health model rooted in compassion, dignity, and practical support that reached over 155,000 individuals during their most vulnerable moments. I am proud of our staff for rising to this extraordinary challenge with skill, tenacity, and humanity, and I am grateful to every city, community, and business partner who helped uplift those who arrived in our city with hope, resilience, and kindness.”
“Millions of future Americans will one day trace their family’s immigration story back to places like the Arrival Center at the Roosevelt Hotel and at Port Authority, sites where New York City met them with humanity, dignity, and hope” said Manuel Castro, Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. “Being part of this once-in-a-generation response has been an honor. I couldn’t be prouder to have played a role in this historic effort over the past three years. I’m deeply grateful to all the public servants who stood with us in this extraordinary chapter of our city’s story.”
New York City’s Arrival Center, based in the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, opened its doors to newly arriving asylum seekers on May 19, 2023. Over the last two years, the facility’s staff registered and provided care to over 155,000 unique people from over 160 countries while operating without interruption 24 hours a day, every day of the year. In coordination with officials at NYC Emergency Management (NYCEM), the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), and Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT), the Arrival Center received approximately 32,000 people on at least 800 chartered buses and seven planes sent to New York City. In September 2023, at the height of the influx of newly arriving asylum seekers to the facility, it received approximately 4,000 people per week. Since the beginning of June, the facility has received less than one hundred people per week.
The Arrival Center served as the first point of contact for all newly arriving asylum seekers in New York City. At the Center, asylum seekers were met with a dignified welcome including food, water, bathrooms, luggage storage, and hygienic products, allowing adults and families with children to rest and get settled after what for many had been a long and difficult journey to New York City. The Arrival Center’s resource navigator teams evaluated asylum seekers’ information — including their legal documents, applications for asylum, work authorization, and temporary protected status, employment history, and education — in order to offer informed, impactful assistance.
To address asylum seekers’ healthcare needs, the Center provided immediate on-site medical screenings, connections to urgent care, behavioral health screenings and care, and vaccinations. First, clinicians performed screenings for communicable diseases, including active tuberculosis and COVID-19, and for rashes symptomatic of measles and varicella (chickenpox). Then, clinicians provided urgent care for common medical conditions and dispensed medications and prescriptions as needed. Staff also regularly provided initial care for pregnant asylum seekers and chronic disease management, and referred asylum seekers to NYC Health + Hospitals’ facilities to receive further care.
Following the medical screening, all asylum seekers ages 12 and above, including many who experienced trauma during their journey, were screened for depression. If someone showed symptoms of depression on the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) screening, they were given a warm handoff to social workers onsite who performed an evaluation and made referrals to mental health clinics as needed. Over the course of the Center’s operations, staff administered over 180,000 screenings for depression.
Finally, clinicians offered vaccinations for measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), varicella, and COVID-19. To date, NYC Health + Hospitals’ staff at the Arrival Center, its humanitarian centers, and hospital facilities have administered over 200,000 vaccinations. The majority of those vaccinations were given to children, many of whom were applying for eligibility to New York City public schools. After asylum seekers completed medical intake, resource navigators met with them to discuss their journey, connect them to resources, such as health care, legal support, child care, and discuss reconnections to their desired destinations. This initial conversation at the Arrival Center informed subsequent case management meetings provided at asylum seekers’ shelter placements, including NYC Health + Hospitals’ humanitarian centers. During these meetings, case managers met with guests every two weeks to gauge where new arrivals were in their immigration journey, identified their barriers to leaving the city shelter system, and created tailored service plans for guests to achieve self-sufficiency and exit the city’s shelter system.
NYC Health + Hospitals opened its first Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center (HERRC) in September 2022 to help the city manage the overwhelming number of asylum seekers seeking temporary housing in the city’s homeless shelter system. Humanitarian centers provided comprehensive services to support asylum seekers pursue a better life, including medical services, case management services, food and nutritional support, language services, mental health resources, school enrollment assistance, social and afterschool programming, and aid in family reunification. Over the course of the HERRC program, more than 140,000 unique people, including nearly 40,000 children, have been provided temporary shelter and wraparound services at humanitarian centers managed by NYC Health + Hospitals.
At the height of its operations in January 2024, NYC Health + Hospitals managed 16 humanitarian centers housing over 25,000 people — three quarters of whom were families with children — including congregate tent facilities erected at Randalls Island, Floyd Bennett Field, and the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center. NYC Health + Hospitals will continue to manage operations at the Row Hotel humanitarian center.
The HERRC Hospitality and Logistics team, who manage food services and resources for guests at all NYC Health + Hospitals’ humanitarian centers, implemented a food service program that has served approximately 40 million meals to humanitarian center guests. At its peak, the HERRC Hospitality and Logistics team provided guests up to 75,000 meals across three meals a day. The HERRC program surveyed guests at all of its humanitarian centers to determine the most popular meals and to ensure guests were served culturally-relevant, nutritious food. All humanitarian centers served Halal-certified food to ensure guests observing Islamic dietary restrictions were comfortable eating all food provided. These measures helped the HERRC program achieve food consumption rates consistently above 96%.
In addition, HERRC facilities provided resources essential to the care of infants and toddlers, helping to distribute over 10 million baby wipes, 2.6 million diapers, and over 700,000 formula bottles and baby food jars.
The HERRC Case Management program provided nearly one million case management meetings to asylum seekers, providing meetings to 99% of guests living in city humanitarian centers, including those operated by HPD/HRO and NYCEM. The city’s proactive, organized case management efforts, which began in October 2023, helped asylum seekers identify needs and set goals to leave the city shelter system and connected them to the appropriate legal, workforce, medical, and social services. Since intensive case management services began in October 2023, 71% of families with children in humanitarian centers have left the shelter system.
These proactive case management efforts helped asylum seekers complete over 111,000 applications for work authorization, temporary protected status, and asylum. In coordination with the city’s Asylum Application Help Center, case managers made a concerted effort to help asylum seekers work, with over 90% of eligible adults now having completed or been approved for work authorization, providing a pathway to opportunity that was a pillar of Mayor Adams’ “Blueprint to Address New York City’s Response to the Asylum Seeker Crisis”.
NYC Health + Hospitals launched a Case Management Community Advisory Board (CAB) in April 2023 to receive guidance and implement feedback from community leadership with experience working with immigrants, refugees, and homeless individuals. The Case Management CAB included approximately 30 organizations who convened bi-weekly and met in smaller work groups focused on onward movement and resettlement, workforce development, and legal services. Their expertise and guidance informed the HERRC program’s understanding of asylum seekers’ needs, helped identify more effective case management work flows to meet those needs, and connected asylum seekers to impactful support, including legal services, resource fairs, and job fairs to help them take their next steps forward.
“As a former asylum seeker, witnessing the operation that HERRC has built for newly arrived individuals is truly incredible,” said Adama Bah, Founder and Executive Director of Afrikana. “It has redefined what it means to welcome newcomers with compassion and care. The fact that NYC Health + Hospitals has been open to feedback shows a deep commitment to growth and community partnership. This is how real change happens by working together to serve not only those arriving but the entire city. Thank you to the countless heroes who have stood beside us and welcomed others with dignity and humanity.”
“The work of the Arrival Center at the Roosevelt Hotel was extremely valuable to the process of welcoming new New Yorkers and helping them find their way in an extremely complex environment,” said Ruth Messinger, Co-Chair of the Interfaith Center of NY and Former Manhattan Borough President. “It made it possible to target help and deliver appropriate services or refer people effectively; without it the situation was infinitely more confusing and less productive for those arriving and those trying to help them.”
“The Center for the Integration and Advancement of New Americans (CIANA), a community-based organization located in Astoria, Queens, has been in the front lines providing direct services to our asylum seekers, and partnering with the HERRC program to invest in our City’s newest New Yorkers,” said Emira Habiby Browne, Founder and CEO of CIANA. “Through the CAB, we had the opportunity to use our expertise, language, and cultural competence, and to provide programmatic guidance and important feedback, giving voice to our new immigrants’ needs. The temporary housing and many support services provided by HERRC have helped stabilize lives, while also protecting the stability of our communities, and offering a more promising future for our newcomers.”
“The work of NYC Health + Hospitals in establishing the Arrival Center at the Roosevelt Hotel for asylum seekers stands as a powerful example of what the city and its partners can achieve with compassion, collaboration, and urgency,” said Cecilia Aranzamendez, Executive Director of Community Services for Lutheran Social Services of New York. “This moment is both a celebration of how many people they have already assisted and a call to continue building on that incredible foundation. Seeing what the city accomplished through the Center reminds us that we can rise to meet the ongoing needs with the same spirit of dedication and hope.”
“Everyone non-native to American soil has an immigration experience; some stories are simply more recent than others,” said Rosa M. Bramble Caballero, Founder and Executive Director of Venezuelan Alliance for Community Support, Inc. “Connecting and honoring our own immigrant story helps us present strength to bear witness to stories of the clients we serve, provide support, and connect asylum seekers to the essential, life-saving resources they need. The HERRC team provided a space for asylum seekers to begin building their new home throughout the New York City community. Their trauma-informed approach aligns with and supports the safety, restoration of dignity, collaboration, and empowerment of new residents. While we are saddened to see the Arrival Center at the Roosevelt Hotel close its doors, we are hopeful that its legacy guides future initiatives to welcome asylum seekers into our community as they rebuild their lives and restore their dreams.”
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