Support for NYC Asylum Seekers
This project supports migrants housed in NYC shelters and seeking asylum. Mutual aid projects supporting migrants in NYC may also submit expenses with prior RHMA approval.
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About
We would like to give an update on RHMA’s work with asylum seekers in NYC, which began in January 2023 when the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal was converted to a HERCC shelter for 2 months. We began organizing around migrant support again this October, when we learned about a new family shelter here in Red Hook at the Brooklyn Motor Inn. These community members are among the 120,000+ migrants who have arrived in the last 16 months and 60,000 migrants currently in the NYC shelter system. Despite NYC’s status as a sanctuary city with right to shelter, 3,000 have been told their time is up.
As reported by our friends at Documented, the mayor’s chief of staff argues that “this is a national crisis that New York City should not be carrying on our backs”; we do not agree. They are here, they need support, and we're all in this together. At our Free Store Thanksgiving weekend, 2023, we met 30 asylum seekers who traveled to Red Hook from shelters all over the city for supplies. We have become connected to many more at this point and are in direct communication with them through the RHMA Migrant Support WhatsApp community.
This virtual community serves as a communication and info-sharing system with language and dialect-based groups, moderated by volunteers (both NYC residents and asylum seekers), can be used to express need, and then RHMA project teams hustle to meet that need. This is aligned with Red Hook Mutual Aid’s original goals and mission: a phone line to increase access to information and aid through inclusive digital and linguistic practices.
This is a big project, and it will most likely grow rapidly as word spreads. We want to do much more than our existing resources allow us, so please contribute financially to this project.
We’d also like to share some other needs and ways the community can support.
Other ways to support:
- Organize an English class or conversation partnership (in-person or virtual) to connect with an asylee who requests language instruction.
- Become a buddy (sponsor) within the RHMA Buddy System and be paired with migrant as a friend, ally, and supporter.
- Continue donating items that would be useful for immigrants housed in the shelter system or for our Free Store. Drop-off locations and events can be found on our Instagram @redhookmutualaid.
- Support us with real estate! We need space for storage, a free store, a partnership with Brooklyn Public Library for more formal language classes, and most importantly, housing that removes our friends from the overloaded shelter system and its 30-day rule, in direct violation of Right to Shelter in New York City.
- Join our project teams! We need: bilingual support, English teachers, immigration lawyers, and a research team to help us understand things like the shelter placement process, immigration law, and the asylum process.
We’re very pleased to be applying what we learned from our Brooklyn Cruise Terminal project to this new iteration of migrant support. Thanks to all for the donations and people power that have been provided thus far.
Budget
Transparent and open finances.
-$60.00 USD
Approved
Invoice #198199
mutual aid
+$5.00USD
Completed
Contribution #750799
-$731.34USD
Completed
Balance transfer
$
Today’s balance$4.32 USD
Total raised
$7,713.75 USD
Total disbursed
$7,709.43 USD
Estimated annual budget
$2,321.35 USD
Today's Balance
$4.32
Estimated Annual Budget
$2,321
Financial Support for Asylum ...
$100,000
per year