Queens Small Business Owner Converts Illegal Shelters to Legal Housing for Migrants
New tonight, a small business owner in Queens busted for cramming dozens of migrants into two illegal shelters says that he has a new plan to house them legally. Tonight, he also has a message for the mayor after the mayor announced plans to visit the southern border this weekend.
“I have a finished basement, but we can’t use the basement because there are no egress windows,” said Ibar, who invited us to tour his new four-bedroom rental in Queens. But this isn’t for him; instead, he’s subletting to a group of African migrants, some of them unloading their luggage tonight after a long bus ride from the southern border.
“We have a finished basement, but we can’t use it because there are no egress windows. That’s a key difference between this shelter and the illegal ones,” he clarified.
He operated one of the shelters in the Bronx and the other in the basement of his furniture store in Queens. Last month, the city discovered over 70 men crammed inside. Now, there are only 12, each paying $300 a month in rent.
“There’s no financial gain. It broke my heart to see my own people suffering, spending the night on the streets,” Ibar said.
We spoke to neighbors who had no idea and are now concerned.
It’s not something I would support in this neighborhood. I believe the neighbors should have been informed,” one neighbor commented.
The growing crisis is why Mayor Adams says he’s traveling to the southern border Saturday, saying in a statement that he was invited by a Catholic charity, writing in part, “Finding solutions to national issues requires national collaboration.”
“At least maybe he will really see what’s going on from going there and so they can do something about it, about what’s happening. If they cannot help the people right now, I think they should stop them from coming in,” Ibar said.
But tonight, they are still coming, 184,000 and counting, busted here in the last two years. And after the Adams Administration went to court to limit some adult shelter stays to 30 days, many of these migrants are running out of options in Jamaica, Queens.
