Queens is taking the largest share of migrants into emergency shelters set up by the city — fueling what the borough’s president on Thursday called a “powder keg” of crises and creating a “recipe for a social and economic disaster.”
Queens was housing 4,782 migrants, or 32% of the total 14,777 placed in emergency shelters as of Wednesday, according to data compiled by the Department of Homeless Services and obtained by The Post on Thursday.
That share is more than one-sixth greater than the 27.3% that Queens residents contribute to the city’s total population, according to 2020 census data.
“It’s a powder keg in Queens at this point,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.
He said the migrants were being sent even though “there’s not enough resources being pumped into the communities.”
“There are several crises. You have a recession coming. We have a lack of affordable housing, rising rents. We have food insecurity.
“This is a recipe for a social and economic disaster,” he warned.
Richards specifically cited “not enough bilingual teachers and not enough bilingual mental health counselors — even in Queens,” which is known as “The World’s Borough” because nearly half the 2.4 million residents were born abroad.
“It’s beyond ridiculous,” he emphasized.
Richards added: “We open our arms to everyone but we definitely need resources.”
The DHS figures show that The Bronx and Manhattan have also taken in more than their fair shares of migrants, based on their percentages of the city’s total population of 8.2 million.
But Brooklyn — where Adams was formerly the borough president — was housing just 26% of the migrants while accounting for more than 31% of the city’s population.
A disabled homeless woman who lives with three of her four kids at the Hollis Family Shelter in Queens said they moved in about a month ago after she couldn’t find housing in Brooklyn.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. All the hotels are maxed out,” said Keisha McDougal, 45.
“Maybe the other boroughs need to jump in and give Queens a break.”
McDougal, who said she came to the Big Apple from Alabama after her husband died, added: “I should get first priority because I’m a goddamn citizen.”
A clerk at the nearby Mini Market bodega said the migrants “should be spread throughout the city evenly, not just put in one place.”
Louis Diaz, 42, who immigrated from the Dominican Republic in 1997 and has been a US citizen for more than 20 years, said, “They do come here and once they figure out we speak Spanish it’s helpful for them.”
“There’s a lot of people outside standing around looking for jobs but they do need help. No doubt about that,” he said.
“The first thing they say is, ‘Do you know anyone hiring?'”
On Staten Island, where migrants have outraged residents and pols by begging near hotels in the Travis neighborhood, the number more than doubled during the past week, surging to 495 from 252 on Oct. 5,
That pushed borough’s share to 4% of the total and has it closing in on the 5.6% that Staten Island accounts for in terms of the Big Apple’s population.
On Wednesday the US and Mexico announced a deal under which Venezuelan migrants who walk or swim across the southern border into America would be sent back.
But as many as 24,000 Venezuelans would be allowed to fly into the US they have sponsors waiting for them.
The agreement came too late for the Big Apple, where Mayor Eric Adams on Friday declared a state of emergency over the city’s migrant crisis.
“We do not comprehensively track data by specific country of origin, but our preliminary assessments of the self-reported data indicate that a majority of asylum seekers are coming from Venezuela,” City Hall press secretary Fabien Levy said Thursday.
Earlier this week, Adams also warned that migrants would be housed in “every community” in the city and said residents wouldn’t be alerted ahead of time.
In an email Thursday, City Hall spokeswoman Kate Smart said the DHS data confirmed Hizzioner’s assertion — without addressing the borough-by-borough disparities.
“As the mayor has said, all communities and each borough must come together as we manage this unprecedented humanitarian emergency, which is exactly what these numbers show,” Smart said.
“To suggest otherwise is purposefully ignoring the truth.”
