Three friends, Ousmane Sy, Ousmane “Alpha” Bah, and Salmane are gathered at the corner of Hall Street and Flushing Avenue in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Bah and Salame perch on their moped together while Sy towers over them on the curb. Blue lanyards hang out of each of their pockets, ID cards fastened to the end. A cluster of repurposed warehouses casts a shadow over the men. “It’s vast,” says Bah as he looks up at the complex of buildings. The sidewalk in front of the entrance to 47 Hall Street is filled with dozens of others crowded together along the block sporting city-issued “I’m an NYC Vax Champ!” drawstring backpacks. 

Sy, Bah, and Salmane are West African migrants who have been living at 47 Hall Street, a Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center since early 2024. The unit has the capacity to hold up to 6,000 people.

Many of the trio's peers travel in groups north towards the Clinton-Washington Avenue G train station every morning, afternoon, and night. The hike down Hall Street is lined by 19th-century brownstones and single-family homes. Their gardens blossom an array of roses and hydrangeas. Couples and families sit together on their stoops, sipping glasses of orange wine, watching the clusters of migrants pass.

The mystery behind 47 Hall Street has intensified daily since the influx of some 200,000 migrants subsequent to the spring of 2022 from the U.S. southern border seeking refuge in New York City. As the city's right-to-shelter mandate to provide housing to the houseless is being tested, urgent questions arise regarding migrants' well-being and their fates in this new environment. Concerns are also growing from neighboring, long-term residents of the communities where emergency shelters have been erected. This is due to both the covert inner workings of the shelter itself and its role within the community.

47 Hall, also known as “The Hall” has been dubbed a “mega-shelter” due to its capacity to hold up to 6,000 residents as of February 2024. The complex is an “adaptive reuse project” according to the realty company RXR. The developer intended for the space to house retail, outdoor programs, galleries, and more in its 674,000 square feet of space, which would inspire a magnetic culture of collaboration and creativity, attracting premier talent and maximizing work-life integration, productivity and purpose." 

Today, The Hall houses thousands of migrants sleeping on cots. After three weeks of making appointments to deposit his asylum documents and applications at the help center within the shelter, Sy recounts that he has been turned away every time and instructed to return the next day. Salmane and Bah have not been able to obtain an appointment due to the number of fellow asylum seekers flooding the offices every day, continuing to wait for answers on their impending status. Much of this issue is created by the lack of resources inside in comparison to the number of asylum seekers under the same roof. The challenge of translating multiple dialects is prevalent in the mission of both migrants and those working within the offices to succeed in the rigorous process.

NYC Health + Hospitals has been a major player in the refugee and migrant situation as the main healthcare resource for those seeking asylum and housing. In October of 2023, the public hospital system approved up to $324.7 million in contracts for private security services at HERRC’s like The Hall. Because Health + Hospitals is now in charge of all intakes of new migrants within the shelter system, they are also in charge of handling the major outcry of community concern. In response to the influx of migrants in the northern Brooklyn area, many locals express complaints about the changes witnessed within their neighborhoods. Officials have agreed after a tumultuous set of community meetings to continue to host assemblies quarterly in the future. NYC Health + Hospitals representative commented that the public benefit corporation “manages 15 humanitarian centers that currently house approximately 25,000 asylum seekers, about 3/4 of whom are families with children.” The corporation also manages the city's Arrival Center, providing “immediate connections to medical screenings, urgent care, vaccinations, social work, case management and helps find available placements in the city’s network of over 200 shelters for asylum seekers.” 

Sy explained that inside The Hall, “the food is very bad, it's no good. It's little, it's not much,” with the others punctuating this, echoing “No good, no good.” When contacted about the food services provided to residents, NYC Health and Hospitals states that LIC Comms and Rethink Food have been contracted to provide the centers with all their food, serving three meals a day, including a hot meal at night served over three four-hour periods, with “nutritious snacks” available 24/7. “Because I am Muslim, I am fasting,” says Sy, mentioning that some local mosques have been providing food in preparation for the upcoming Ramadan, “maybe after, for the iftar, [if] you have money, do your iftar.” 

The New York EDC stated in a December Q&A the details of the non-requirement of spacing between cots, minimums of natural light and ventilation required by the corporation. It is highlighted that tenants seeking proposals within HERRC use are meant to be temporary for up to 5 years, meaning that the future of these shelters are up in the air. RXR Realty’s representative dodged my request for comment on specific inquiries into the shelter itself, redirecting all questions to “the city.” Sara Klein from DKC Public Relations ended her response regarding the future of the building by stating that the company is continuing to pursue a change in zoning to convert it to a mixed-use project.

As I speak with the group of migrants on the corner of Hall Street and Flushing Avenue, a masked man on a motorcycle abruptly comes to a stop next to our group. He shouts profanities and threats to the men around me that he will return with his friends with the intention to harm them, screaming for the group to “go back home.” The migrants look back at the man on the bike in disbelief, standing in silence.

In April, the 88th Police Precinct hosted its monthly community council meeting. Makeshift paper fans wave across the hot basement of The Grace Agard Harewood Neighborhood Senior Center. Eager Clinton Hill and Fort Greene residents packed the room, compelled to participate in this particular meeting because of a local push to address the topic of Hall Street’s shelter. Within the hour, the usual reports are made by commanding officer Captain Michael E. Goodchild, including recent crime statistics within the prior four weeks. As the time allotted for questions and comments comes around, hands shoot in the air. Locals are eager to both praise the precinct for their work and commitment to the neighborhood at this time and also call upon them for increased police presence at night, followed by anecdotes of interaction with the migrants living in The Hall. Captain Goodchild responds to many of the comments about increasing disturbances throughout the neighborhood by introducing the room to the Neighborhood Coordination Officers, encouraging residents to call the two officers directly regarding any disturbances throughout the day. 

Alyssa, a Washington Avenue resident, stands up in the audience to express her fear of sending her two daughters to walk their dog at night, saying there is now an “uneasiness” in the neighborhood. She asks the commanding officer why 3,000 people have been housed in their residential neighborhood while she unfolds and reads from a piece of paper with calculations. “$388 a day for 30 days. I did the math. $11,000 to house one single migrant. And we pay taxes and our neighborhood is going to shit,” says Alyssa, “this is not the neighborhood I bought into, this is not the neighborhood that we pay high taxes to live in.” She continues to reference the “orange peels, the milk cartons, the urination in the subway,” adding that the residents of 47 Hall Street are “walking up and down the street, going through the garbage, coming into our gardens.” Alyssa closes her comment by presenting an idea: “I mean, they don't do anything all day, get them a class on how to behave in this country.” 

Other attendees serve a rebuttal to the comments made by Alyssa by claiming that while new issues have been raised since implementing the shelter into the Brooklyn community, the surrounding neighborhoods have continuously battled change due to gentrification. From 2000 to 2022, Fort Greene’s median household income has risen from $72,020 to $127,910, making the neighborhood a cornerstone of gentrification within the borough. Today, New York City’s housing shortage is impacted by rising prices in rent rather than a lack of unoccupied buildings. 47 Hall Street is a direct product of the overproduction of luxury spaces being used as high-density housing. 

In a February public safety announcement hosted by Mayor Adams, Police Commissioner Edward Caban stated that in recent month, a wave of migrant crime has washed over our city," and continued by stating that migrants have been “preying on New Yorkers and making our city less safe.” Within the same month, volunteer members of New York City’s Guardian Angels approached and put a man who they alleged to be a shoplifting migrant in a headlock on live television during a Fox New interview. As it turns out, this man is not a migrant, but a Bronx native. The NYPD has also not provided evidence since proving that the man who was accosted committed a crime. Within the live recording, Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the anti-crime patrol group, directs the camera to film the altercation for viewers, commenting “Our guys have just taken down one of the migrant guys on the corner of 42nd and 7th,” continuing by saying “They’ve taken over.” 

Former President Donald J. Trump has amplified these claims nationally via his own “alt-tech” social media platform, stating that “A new category of crime is developing in New York City, and America itself, and it is bigger and more violent than anything seen in decades," initiating fear among the masses supported by zero statistics or data. With highly publicized instances of crimes committed by migrants within the last year on various forms of social media, the narrative of a constant influx of violence has continuously streamed through the press. In light of this, some do not see this phenomenon take place in their front yards.  

Liz Jones, who has lived in neighboring Fort Greene for 28 years, says that although she is aware of the new residents within The Hall, she has not noticed much change in the surrounding area. “What I noticed most was a different demographic,” says Jones as she recalls stories of different men, women, and families approaching her to ask for food, remembering moments that often occur as she strolls her neighborhood. She recollects a man approaching her, saying “he was so skinny. He goes, ‘eat, eat,’” asking her to buy him a sandwich from the bodega on the corner.

With the lack of public knowledge of what occurs inside the shelter, many concerned locals are relying on word of mouth to gain more information on what might be happening at the end of Hall Street. Within the popular website Nextdoor.com, a public forum in which residents across a variety of New York City neighborhoods can interact with one another, conversations are sparking on the topic of the shelter and its relation to the neighborhood. Jones explains the energy she has noticed around the conversations online, saying “From what I've read, this is not the best shelter and it's overcrowded, and things probably get tense.” She calls the posts and conversations online “clickbait”, saying “I think people who have a certain political viewpoint will paint the picture of this being, you know, terrible migrants, and they're ruining our city.”   

The NYPD does not release crime records based on nationality within the precinct, but the CompStat 2.0 public database frequently updates the rise and fall of crimes within the 88th precinct. In the area, grand larceny auto is on the rise, as explained by Captain Goodchild during the April meeting, but there were no provided accounts connecting the rise in crime to those living in The Hall.

The Hall is the first shelter that Sy, Bah, and Salmane have lived in since migrating to New York, but since the recent update to the allotted time for shelter stay within the city, it will most likely not be their last. In October of 2023, New York Mayor Eric Adams announced that single adult asylum seekers would be give 30 day shelter limits. In September, the administration also shortened time for families with children to shelter for 60 days. With many migrants being transferred from shelters that are not HHERC’s, frustration has grown inside the shelter due to the abrupt transition from private hotel rooms provided by the Hotel Association of New York City to open floor-plan living within high capacity shelters. While those in the single male facility fight individual struggles, the families in the neighboring shelter face exacerbated challenges due to supporting a family unit. Without affordable childcare being made available within the shelter or HERRC system, families are left to look for care elsewhere.

Jones says that while she will not deny that there have been “things happening,” referring to the complaints of fights and noise in the surrounding area being documented on online forums, she thinks it gets blown out of proportion. Although the situation is disheartening, she and other residents on her block attempt to support their new neighbors by separating their cans for people like Ousmane Sy, who has only been able to rely on bottle collecting as a source of income without asylum and working papers. “I’ve lived in New York since the 90s. This is nothing.”

On an average Monday morning, commuters stream into the Clinton-Washington Avenue station. Hall Street residents, both shelter occupants and locals, migrate back into the station to begin their commutes. They travel to grandiose office towers, restaurants, post offices, and beyond, actively engaging in New York's ever changing economy. Some are clutching briefcases, others have trash bags stuffed in drawstring backpacks to fill with their finds. They step into the same train cars and get off at the same stops, set out to pursue economic success all in their own right. The New York natives instinctively tap their phones at the turnstiles to pay the $2.90 fare, 58 bottles collected for Ousmane Sy.