FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 5, 2023

Contact: Beth Cefalu, Director of Strategic Communications(845) 638-5645

Rockland Update On State of Emergency

New City, NY – Rockland County Executive Ed Day briefed the media and public Monday on the declared State of Emergency in response to the City of New York planning to house about 340 adult males in Armoni Inn and Suites in Orangeburg for four months followed by attempted integration into the County.

“New York City Mayor Eric Adams - hear me loud and clear - Rockland will not stand for your administration – which boasts itself as a Sanctuary City – diverting busloads of undocumented individuals to our County,” said County Executive Ed Day Monday at the press conference. “This is not about being anti-immigration but as it stands you are only incentivizing illegal immigration which does nothing to support our infrastructure or the hardworking citizens we are elected to serve. It is only draining taxpayer resources from the families who are already here and struggling including our homeless, low-income, disabled, seniors, and other vulnerable populations.”

The State of Emergency prohibits any hotel or motel to house migrants without a license from the County. Additionally, it prohibits municipalities from housing anyone in Rockland without a contract agreement with the County. Violations of the State of Emergency are $2,000 per migrant per day.

“Instead of trying to help our own families the State of New York is using taxpayer dollars to fund up to one year of housing and services for non-citizens to relocate within our state,” said County Executive Ed Day. “Here’s a question to Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul – will you be offering all of our low-income families free housing, food, clothing, and more for up to a year as the current state of the economy drives the cost of living, home, and apartment prices to new record highs?”

In March the County of Rockland publicized the strain to schools, food pantries, housing, and social services already being endured due to the natural migration of undocumented individuals resettling in Rockland. While city officials claim they will provide some short-term funding and services to these individuals, no realistic plans have been communicated as to who will house, feed, and support these individuals in the long-term.

“We did an inspection of the premises Sunday and what our Fire and Assistant Building inspectors found were piles of shirts that said social worker and supervisor and a room full of medical supplies. This is going to be a New York City run shelter in the Town of Orangetown and our town code does not allow that,” said Orangetown Town Supervisor Teresa Kenny. “We have a town law that says transients up to no more than 30 days so I don’t know why the Mayor thinks he can come and pay for people for four months without checking if its even legal in the municipality but I’m sorry Mr. Mayor you don’t trump our laws.”

“Not a lot of information; no timeframes other than it is imminent; no plan. And that is very troublesome since nobody should be sending homeless people to another County; you don’t do that. You have to work together, and New York City just isn’t doing that,” said Department of Social Services Commissioner Joan Silvestri. “We have a very low homeless population in Rockland County and that’s not by accident that’s done by hard work and setting up programs overtime.”

“It is ‘morally bankrupt’ for New York City to be shipping their problem to Rockland County. The United States of America is a nation of immigrants, and we welcome immigrants to our country. They enrich our economy, our culture, and our communities” said Congressman Mike Lawler. “My wife is an immigrant, I’ve been through this process she became a citizen 2.5 years ago but to be clear this system is fundamentally broken.”

“They need a place to stay. They need to apply for work permit which costs $410. They need a place to go to fill out the application, someone to take them to DSS, someone to take them to Catholic Charities,” explained Renold Julien, Executive Director of non-profit Konbit Neg Lakay.

“The demand for services has grown dramatically,” said Catholic Charities Executive Director Dan Eudene. “In April over 475 households came to our food pantry for food. That is more than double what we had 3 years ago before COVID. We also operate the Rockland County Warming Shelter and in February we averaged 60 guests a night, 50% more we’ve had than any other previous year. Finally, there is a serious shortage of affordable housing in Rockland County. In 2022, we worked with 100+ households to help them remain sheltered.”

Watch the full press conference here.

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