Aiexpress – The New York City Department of Buildings has vacated a Bronx furniture store that had been repurposed to shelter dozens of migrants in “unsafe living conditions.”
The vacate order was issued due to “hazardous life-threatening conditions, a lack of natural light and ventilation, and severe overcrowding,” according to the DOB.
At least ten people were taken from the store on Wednesday, only days after hundreds of migrants were discovered in the same person’s Queens furniture company, according to the DOB.
When the Queens business was examined on Monday night, there were 74 migrants present; the majority of them were from West Africa.
Others may have left on their own or scattered when officials came, according to the city. In case more migrants arrived later in the night, the city posted posters on the shuttered storefront gate directing them to services.
Inspectors were sent to a two-story commercial facility in the Bronx to examine an “illegal conversion” when they discovered that the business had been illegally converted into sleeping quarters, with 45 beds crammed closely over the first floor and cellar, according to the DOB.
The DOB reported finding e-bikes, extension wires, space heaters, and hot plates throughout the facility.
The mayor’s chief of staff, Camille Joseph Varlack, stated that the city became aware of the store when complaints were received.
“We went in and encountered people who were living in hazardous situations. As we would with any New Yorker we discovered living in an unsafe situation, we swiftly evacuated those areas and recommended those individuals to appropriate options,” Varlack stated.
As part of his Operation Lone Star plan, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bused migrants from the southern border to New York City, resulting in a housing and nutrition catastrophe. As of February 16, the Texas governor’s office reported that 37,900 migrants had been transferred to New York City since August 2022.
