The city’s Bellevue Men’s Shelter at 30th Street and First Avenue in Kips Bay has turned into a hotbed of newly arrived immigrants, unruly vagrants and sex offenders – an explosive mix wreaking havoc on the streets of the once quiet residential neighborhood. “In the last six months, it’s gotten really, really scary,” according to one terrified resident of the block who said police recently contacted him about an armed robbery and a carjacking in front of his home. “The situation seems to be reaching a tipping point.” At the 1,000-bed shelter — the city’s largest for single men — residents told The Post of overcrowding, fights and tensions with newly arrived asylum seekers. Texas Governor Greg Abbott began flooding the Big Apple with busloads of immigrants in early August. Another six buses arrived on Saturday. “We don’t want them here because, to be honest with you, to me they’re treated better than us, and that’s supposed to be ours,” said Darrell Pankey, a homeless resident for six months. Migrants lined up to board a bus to be taken to a men’s shelter. JCRice Immigrants waiting to be taken to a shelter in New York. JCRice A line of people waiting to be transferred to a Brooklyn shelter. JCRice “It’s going to blow up any day now,” he added. Conditions at the shelter are becoming more and more chaotic. There have been 1,196 calls to 911 this year about the shelter (through Sunday), up 607 percent from the 169 calls received for the same period in 2021. Of this year’s calls, 908 were ambulance incidents. Emergency operators recorded 26 calls for disputes (out of seven). five for attacks in progress (out of two); and 12 for other crimes (from one). Residents of New York’s largest men’s shelter told The Post of overcrowding, fights and tensions since the new arrivals arrived. JCRice The FDNY responded to the building Friday morning to a report of people stuck in an elevator that turned out to be a “malicious false alarm,” the department said. The building, a former mental hospital dating back to 1929, sits between the campuses of Bellevue Hospital and NYU Langone, and also serves as a drop-in center for the city’s shelter system. Another homeless local, Jeffrey Harris, claims the migrants have been stealing phones to try to contact their families back home. “This place is packed. There are no beds and they are still sending them. They can’t build this place up fast enough to accommodate them,” Harris said. One homeless man, Jeffery Harris, says the migrants were “stealing phones to try to contact their families back home”. JCRice “In the last six months, it’s become very, very scary,” according to one horrified resident of the block. “The situation seems to be reaching a tipping point.” JCRice The increase in people at the men’s shelter has created havoc on the streets of the once quiet residential area. JCRice Meanwhile, immigrants claim the real threat is domestic vagrants. “There are dangerous people here,” said Elias, a new arrival from Venezuela, who said unattended items are routinely stolen. He’s seen residents doing drugs and one fight so far, he said. Another Venezuelan man said New Yorkers were “aggressive. he’s always yelling and pushing people and causing trouble.” Gabriel García, 18, also from Venezuela, said he was woken up a week ago by his roommate shouting at him in English and he couldn’t understand what she was saying. “I was scared and felt like my life was in danger,” Garcia said. Venezuelan Ernesto Jose Cortez, 25, said he saw a local man standing near a group of newly arrived migrants outside the shelter on Thursday night “in a way as if he wanted to fight … he wanted to hit them”. He said he alerted a security guard who intervened.
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“There is a feeling of racism against immigrants and there is danger here,” said Angel Pereira, 25, a Venezuelan bussed from Texas who has been at the shelter for a week. The massive building has an east and west wing with rooms accommodating from two people to 10, a resident said. Several people said the air conditioning barely worked. There are also tensions between workers and residents. Kenneth Martin, a New Yorker who has been at the shelter for a month, called the staff indifferent. He got into a beef on September 6 with a security guard manning an elevator over who got to push the buttons. The guard yelled, “That’s why you’re homeless.” Martin, who took a video of the incident, called the guard the N-word and said the worker tried to grab his phone. He said security guards took him to hospital after the incident, but he refused treatment. One resident, who said he was recently released from prison and did not want to give his name, said workers seem to prioritize helping immigrants. Ex-convicts on parole from state prisons are sometimes housed at the shelter under a city-state agreement, according to the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, which said it does not take them there directly. But 26 sex offenders, including a dozen designated as the most dangerous — Level 3 — list the shelter as their home, according to the state registry. A shelter resident was arrested in 2015 for raping a woman at a nearby bar. The city claimed it had purged sex killers after that, and claimed then state registry isn’t always accurate. Another shelter resident, Elijah Kelly, was arrested in the New Year’s Eve rape and strangulation of a neighborhood resident in December 2020. A worker at an apartment building across the street from the shelter said residents often use the plants there to hide knives, needles and other contraband. Meanwhile, immigrants claim that New York’s homeless men are the real threats. JCRice “This is where they hide their guns, their screwdrivers, their blade,” said Kostas Stamatiou, who then pulled a folding pocketknife from the hedges. “They’re always hiding something.” Major crime in the 13th Precinct, which includes the shelter, is up 28 percent this year — resulting in a 36 percent increase in grand theft. 35% increase in burglaries. a 14% increase in felony assaults: and a 7% increase in robberies. On Monday, the shelter and others were so full that the city was unable to find beds for 60 men, most of whom were immigrants, in violation of a court-ordered right-to-housing rule. Mayor Eric Adams said the city’s shelter system is at a “tipping point” as 11,000 migrants have come to the Big Apple. Ronald Francois, 55, a shelter resident since June, said he was finally leaving for a Veterans Affairs facility and that the flood of immigrants seemed like the last straw. Texas Governor Greg Abbott began bringing hundreds of migrants to New York in early August. JCRice Jose Cortez (left) and Gabriel Garcia (right) arrived in New York from Venezuela via bus from Texas. Georgia Worrell “We are working around the clock to ensure that we welcome newly arrived asylum seekers in need of shelter services with open arms,” said a spokeswoman for the New York City Department of Human Services. JCRice “This system is failing,” he said. “The homeless system is a failing system, so I’m trying to get out as fast as I can.” City officials said they provide beds to those in need under the Right to Housing Act, including sex offenders, noting that not all offenders have residency restrictions. Officials said the city and its shelter operators provide around-the-clock security, including cameras in all of its buildings. “We are working around the clock to ensure that we welcome newly arrived asylum seekers in need of shelter services with open arms,” said a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Social Services. “We have already opened a number of emergency sites across the city to deal with the unprecedented need for shelter services and our teams continue to work at breakneck speed to identify additional capacity across the five boroughs while addressing the unique needs of asylum seekers who they come to us in their greatest hour of need,” the spokeswoman added.
