New York City’s packed homeless shelter system is now housing about 4,900 border crossers, most of whom have arrived on migrant buses sent to the sanctuary city from Texas by Gov. Greg Abbott (R).
For months, Abbott has sent buses filled with border crossers to New York City, which prides itself as the nation’s largest sanctuary jurisdiction for illegal aliens.
Newly released data, published by the New York Times, reveals the extent to which President Joe Biden’s expansive Catch and Release operation at the United States-Mexico border is attracting the world’s poorest and most vulnerable.
New York City’s homeless shelters, for instance, are now housing about 4,900 border crossers — most of whom have arrived on Abbott’s migrant buses. Officials told the Times that the daily arrival of thousands of border crossers is the main driver of the city’s ballooning sheltered homeless population, which stands at about 51,000.
“The situation is dire,” according to the Times.
For the city’s family homeless shelters, which make up more than half of all shelters, the vacancy rate has fallen to just 0.18 percent, leaving only 19 rooms available. The family shelter system can house more than 10,000 families.
The Times notes that based on current trends, if the pace of arriving border crossers continues, New York City’s family homeless shelter population “would nearly double, to almost 60,000, up from the current 31,000” over the next year.
Likewise, if the number of young border crossers arriving in New York City remains constant, more than 10,000 are expected to arrive over the next year and join the city’s family shelter system.
Arriving border crossers are already flocking to Salvation Army locations across the city, as well as soup kitchens. Five soup kitchens have seen an additional 300 guests a week since the migrant buses started coming to New York City.
While the city’s homeless shelter system remains overburdened, officials have tried to alleviate the situation by giving away about 6,000 luxury hotel rooms to border crossers. The city has also promised to start enrolling at least 1,000 young border crossers in public schools.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.