Vacant Office Space Converted to Housing As Ukrainian Migrants Flood NYC

As the US, UK, EU and some of their allies have already committed billions of dollars' worth of lethal aid to fan the flames of the Ukraine conflict, the West has also exacerbated the problem of refugees. The longer the conflagration persists, the more resources hosting countries will be forced to spend accommodating Ukrainian migrants.

New York State is struggling to find housing for thousands of migrants from Ukraine, New York City's mayor, Eric Adams, said in an interview with Russian-language channel RTVI.

As of 9 May 2023, there were 245,000 people from Ukraine who had applied for permanent residence in the United States, and who have individual sponsors, the mayor said. Around 13 percent of them are now in New York, with city authorities forced to use office space as housing, among other options.

The more than 32,000 people that have chosen to come to New York to seek a better life often settle in the Brooklyn area, which New Yorkers themselves call "the key to America", said Adams.

Underscoring that many Ukrainian refugees in New York were already actively participating in the economy of a city which already has an extensive Ukrainian community, Adams pointed out that his administration has allocated a significant amount to local agencies and organizations to try and help the refugees “truly assimilate into the local society”.

Ukrainian refugees sign in to attend a job fair in the Brooklyn borough of New York on February 01, 2023.

© AFP 2023 / ANGELA WEISS

The mayor of New York said that in January 2022, when he officially took office, the number of illegal migrants stood at around 45,000. Since then, this figure has grown by another 70,000. There are several ways to tackle this “national scale” problem, Adams believes, and one of which entails federal government support.

“We need the White House to fund this initiative properly,” Adams said, deploring the fact that the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has given New York a depressingly small amount of money so far. As New York is faced with the challenge of a vast majority of migrants and asylum seekers arriving in the city, “we should get the resources we need to address this problem”, Mayor Adams explained.

As New York waits for federal funds to help tackle the refugee problem to be released, it has already adopted several initiatives in the context of migration. For example, office space will be converted to housing, funded, in part, by the capital city of New York State, Albany. For housing purposes, New York authorities expect to "convert almost 90Mln square meters of empty real estate". According to Adams, many people are still working from home after the COVID-19 pandemic, and the vacant office spaces could be used to solve the city’s “affordable housing crisis.”

Since the Ukraine crisis escalated in 2022, vast numbers of migrants have left the country seeking better life opportunities.

In fiscal year 2022, which ended on 30 September 2022, the US, which already had the second-largest Ukrainian immigrant population, according to the Migration Policy Institute, accepted a total of 1,610 Ukrainian refugees.

The federal Uniting for Ukraine program dramatically slashed the pace of the traditional refugee admissions process.

Thousands of migrants from Ukraine also made a bee-line for European states. The EU was not only eager to arm the Kiev regime so that it can fight the US-led proxy war against Russia, but it also welcomed arrivals from Ukraine. EU interior ministers came up with an EU-wide registration system for Ukrainian refugees, and a Temporary Protection program ensuring their right to work, health, education, shelter, and financial support for up to three years. Some European states were criticized for the preferential treatment given Ukrainians (who are predominantly white), leaving asylum-seekers from other countries - Middle East, Africa, and Afghanistan - at a disadvantage. Most Ukrainian refugees were taken in by Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic.

Over time, however, enthusiasm for helping Ukraine has sharply waned across the continent, particularly over the cost of hosting refugees, with the situation exacerbated by the unfolding energy crunch, soaring inflation, and plummeting living standards. Accordingly, Europeans have displayed weariness of the unfolding refugee crisis, manifested in dwindling volunteer aid, refusals to accommodate refugees, and demonstrations across the Old Continent.