City officials have quietly opened a “welcome center” to handle some of the roughly 8,000 newly arrived migrants that have flooded the Big Apple in recent weeks, The Post has learned.
The facility — aimed at enrolling their children in schools, offering job placement and helping the migrants complete their immigration paperwork — is operating out of the Red Cross complex in Hell’s Kitchen.
It is part of a $6.7 million city contract issued in August aimed at helping the thousands who have trekked or been shipped here to integrate into the five boroughs.
“The concept and the plan is to have various city providers on site as a one-stop, one-time, get as many things done as you can,” said a source familiar with the operation, who said the planning had been underway for about two weeks.
The scene there was quiet on Wednesday. A reporter observed only a handful of people using the facility, including a family of three exiting while another person was handed some paperwork.
The operation is being run by Catholic Charities, which recently posted a notice on its website seeking volunteers to help.
“Catholic Charities Community Services is currently experiencing an influx of individuals and families seeking asylum here in New York City,” the notice reads. “We need personable, professional volunteers to help our Case Management team with administrative duties and client-related activities.”
It adds: “You will primarily be, escorting and greeting asylum seekers, handing out bagged lunches, or performing various office tasks to aid the case management team in the new navigation center.”
More than 7,600 migrants have come to New York by bus and plane since May — some sent by the Biden administration and others shipped north by the busload by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — putting the city’s shelter system and social services apparatus under intense pressure.
“What the city is trying to do is help with more than things that are needed in a moment,” said Alexander Rapaport, who heads the Masbia Soup Kitchen Network, which is helping provide food to migrants as they get off the buses at the Port Authority.
“Sometimes you need documents and it’s a process, you need to talk to an embassy — you need to be able to come back and forth.”
The welcome center’s opening comes as officials continue to inch toward opening a new intake facility for those streaming in from the southern border as well as identifying and renting hotels to provide additional shelter space for the recent arrivals.
The slow progress comes as the commissioner overseeing the city’s homelessness and social services agencies, Gary Jenkins, is spending nearly two weeks on vacation, The Post revealed on Monday.
The Department of Homeless Services now says that it has selected a finalist to manage the new initial processing point for migrants, where they complete a screening for physical and mental needs before being assigned a bed in the shelter system.
That request also called on potential contractors to line up 600 hotel rooms to go alongside the intake facility, which were initially slated for the ROW NYC hotel. However, that location was scotched and its unclear where they may now be located.
Separately, officials also said this week that they’ve received at least 18 applications to provide hotel beds in response to a second DHS request to secure an additional 5,000 hotel beds.
Mayor Eric Adams described the facility as being in the midst of a “soft opening” when asked about its delayed start-up on Monday.
“We want to make sure we get it right, because, as you know, the numbers are coming in at increasing pace,” he said.
City Hall representatives were not immediately able to comment on Wednesday.
