New York Not Allowed to Use Defunct Catholic School to House Migrants on Staten Island, Judge Rules

A Staten Island judge on Tuesday blocked New York City from using the site of a defunct Catholic school as a controversial 300-person migrant shelter.

Staten Island Supreme Court Justice Wayne Ozzi ordered the city to stop using St. John Villa Academy to house asylum seekers and said that the premises must be vacated, local outlets including ABC7 reported.

Staten Island Borough President Vito J. Fossella lauded the court’s decision, calling it in a statement as “some common sense.”

“It’s refreshing to know that there are jurists in our system, like Judge Ozzi, who understands our concerns with having migrant shelters placed within residential areas,” wrote Fossella, who previously said that housing migrants at the St. John Villa Academy shelter was “the worst possible choice in the worst possible location."

The court argued that the influx of migrants coming to New York City doesn’t constitute an emergency, and therefore doesn’t fall under Mayor Eric Arams emergency jurisdictions, according to according to Fox 5 New York reporter, Morgan McKay and CBS News. City Hall is expected to appeal the decision, the New York Post reported.

New York City has been struggling to house thousands of migrants that have come to the state amid skyrocketing numbers of asylum seekers crossing the border. Last month, Adams said that nearly 100,000 asylum seekers have arrived in NYC seeking shelter since 2022. 

In August, New York City officials and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were trying to lease the former Fort Wadsworth military base on State Island to house migrants. The military base closed in 1994 and it was turned over to the National Park Service after the U.S. Navy made it the headquarters of Naval Station New York in 1979.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has been trying to get approval from the Biden administration to use the site since early May. If the state receives that approval, the facility will then be one of the nearly 200 shelters housing over 57,000 homeless asylum seekers in New York City. 

New York City has also considered options at college campuses,  tent shelters, and hotels for migrant shelters. The Roosevelt Hotel in the city's Upper West Side has been housing migrants, but it has reached its capacity, leading some asylum-seekers to sleep outside on the sidewalk.