A new migrant shelter will open next month at a former college dorm building in the Bronx’s swanky Riverdale section — angering some local residents who fear the “neighborhood will be destroyed.”
The city is putting the finishing touches on the shelter at 435 West 238th St. — a stone’s throw away from the $63,500-per-year Ethical Culture Fieldston School — which is set to open sometime in August, according to City Council Member Eric Dinowitz.
The building, previously used as off-campus Manhattan College housing, will house 95 migrant families, according to City Hall.
As furniture was being moved inside the facility on Wednesday local residents fumed over the soon-to-be shelter.
“I’m not happy to see them moving these people in here,” Hugh McGuire, 94, a Korean war vet who lives across street, told The Post. “It’s not going to be good if they’re hanging around all day with nothing to do. That’s not going to lead anywhere good.”
“I can tell you all the people in my building are pissed off,” added neighborhood resident Gerri, 71. “A lot of people are talking about leaving, but it’s probably mostly talk. I can’t leave so I’m just going to hope for the best.”
“The neighborhood will be destroyed, I have to get out,” said Nicole L., a US resident of 30 years after spending her first 43 in the former Soviet Union. “I see a lot of people moving away from New York City. I think it is probably for these reasons.”
The local outrage aimed at the shelter isn’t new.
Last year, as many as 75 demonstrators carrying signs reading “Affordable Housing, yes! Migrants, no!” and, “No land grabs! Save our Children” stood in the rain to denounce the shelter plans.
Dinowitz said he is “still awaiting basic information” from the Adams administration like social services that will be available and coordination with local schools, according to a statement posted to X Tuesday evening.
“We should prioritize the construction and renovation of housing over shelters, but the administration has chosen to incentivize the use and construction of shelters rather than permanent housing,” Dinowitz wrote.
“Though I disagree with this choice, the administration must take great care in supporting both the current residents and new migrants.”
The shelter will be run by Yonkers-based Westhab Inc., which runs homeless shelters in the boroughs. It is slated to provide meals, connections to social services, and referrals to other support systems for the migrant families, according to City Hall.
A spokesperson for the New York City Department of Social Services (DSS) told The Post the new shelter will assist some of more than 210,000 asylum seekers that have arrived within city limits since Spring 2022.
Despite previous reports, the shelter is not currently contracted to be a permanent or long-term facility, DSS added.
“These families are arriving in the City after long, harrowing journeys, and we are committed to providing them a safe and secure place to stay,” the spokesperson said.
Dinowitz recalled grim visits to the area’s migrant shelters to The Post — including one shelter, the Van Cortlandt Hotel, sporting mold on the walls and reports of vermin.
Other shelters in the district – which encompasses the northwest corner of the Bronx – have resulted in residents panhandling and under-resourced schools that aren’t equipped to handle asylum seekers, he said.
“Regardless of how anyone feels about our immigration system, kids should not be in a place with mold concerns,” Dinowitz said. “There were kids that weren’t registered for school, and we were trying to make sure that DOE [Department of Education] employees were at the site and at times where the families were able to register their kids for school.”
“I look forward to the [Adams] administration changing course and immediately engaging with the local community,” the council member added via X.
The 83-unit dorm dubbed Overlook Manor was purchased in May 2023 for $18 million by the Stagg Group and was originally slated to be a homeless shelter — but under a deal inked by the company last September, the city would pay the owners $2.4 million in annual rent for the migrant shelter, The Post previously reported.
“I think the reality is, nobody wants to live next to a shelter,” Dinowitz told The Post. “I think a lot of that is going out of fear … about things like crime.
“Truthfully, the biggest complaint we’re getting is panhandling, which to me suggest that families there are not getting the support and the attention they need,” Dinowitz added, “which is why I’m so adamant that the administration is working constantly my office … to make sure that the new families arriving there are getting support they need there so that they don’t have to look elsewhere.”
As of this week, 64,300 migrants remain in the city’s care – and hundreds of asylum seekers are still coming in each week, pushing the shelter system “to its limit,” the DSS said. 213 emergency sites, including 15 humanitarian centers, have been opened as a result.
“It is therefore imperative that we continue to open new facilities across the city, as necessary, to meet the growing need for shelter,” the DSS spokesperson told The Post.