Migrants struggle to find shelter as encampment grows in Brooklyn neighborhood

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (PIX11) – A resourceful migrant washed his feet with water from a city fire hydrant, using a hose borrowed from a community garden in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn.

On this block, Venezuelan migrants straddle one side of the corner. West Africans are on the other side.

They have joined an encampment of street homeless migrants, which has only grown in size since the nearby Stockton Street shelter right down the block shut down last week.

We met Moustapha on Friday. He’s a Senegalese migrant who did not want to be identified and says he’s now spending his tenth night on the street.  

“We’re trying to look for apartments, and we just don’t know where to find them,” Moustapha told PIX11 News through a translator.

A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams tells PIX11 News that before it closed, some 270 migrants lived at the Stockton Street shelter.

They say the combination of frequent shelter closings and 30- and 60-day shelter limits makes it impossible to accurately count the number of migrants currently fending for themselves, including the men here at the community garden.  

Decades ago, this was an abandoned lot filled with crack vials and needles. Then, about 15 years ago, residents in the neighborhood saved it and turned it into the Bushwick City community garden. But for the last year or so, the chickens aren’t the only residents here. Migrants have moved in, sleeping in the sheds – seeking shelter wherever they can. When this space fills up, the only alternative – is sleeping on the sidewalk.

Jaime – who also did not want to be identified, says he can’t seem to catch a break.

“He lost his bed because he was at work late. He says the rules in the shelters are abusive because, in some shelters, you have to be in by 5 pm, and if you don’t sign in, they’ll kick you out,” says Jaime.

Migrant advocate and community garden volunteer Mariel Acosta says what’s happening here is an example of a new balancing act - taking shape across the city.

“It’s a setback for them to actually become self-sufficient. I call it the loop of hell,” says Acosta.