A Republican-led House committee is demanding Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams cough up records on the controversial lease extension of a troublesome migrant encampment at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field.
The House Natural Resources Committee asked Hochul and Adams to explain why they “proactively sought an extension” despite opposition to the site, which has been a hotbed of unrest and violence.
“The community, Gateway National Recreation Area, and migrants encamped at the site have all suffered due to increased crime, inadequate infrastructure and inappropriate use of National Parks Service lands, impacting public safety and community’s well-being,” said a letter to the city and state sent by the committee Thursday.
“Now NYC and the administration have chosen to double down on this failed experiment,” said the searing missive, obtained by The Post.
The lease for the 2,000-bed tent city was set to expire Sept. 14 but the National Parks Service — which oversees the historic former airfield off Flatbush Avenue — notified city officials last month that it had agreed to allow the Adams administration to operate the migrant shelter there for another year.
The lease extension “responds to the State of New York’s continued emergency declaration,” the NPS said at the time.
But just last week, Adams announced the city would close the controversial Randall’s Island shelter — another mega tent city — by the end of February, because the number of arriving migrants had gone down for 14 consecutive weeks, and was now at its lowest level in more than a year.
Republican committee members questioned the “need to declare a disaster” and probed Adams’ and Hochul’s “interest in the deficient site.”
In the original lease, a number of required improvements to the site had been laid out as part of the agreement.
The committee questioned why those improvements had not been fully completed before the lease expired, and ordered Adams and Hochul to provide a plan for doing so.
“The FBF lease requires NYC to return the areas of the park currently occupied by the migrants to their original condition,” the letter said, noting that an extension would double the negative impact on the site.
Hochul last year agreed to have the state pick up the $1,733,750 monthly lease payments for the city to operate the tent shelter, while the Big Apple is on the hook for $625,000 yearly to bus migrant students away from the transportation desert for school.
As part of its Shelter and Services Program, the Department of Homeland Security also allocated more than $59 million to the city’s Office of Management and Budget.
Information about how the city allocated this funding to “ensure its fully accounted for” were also among the list of demands for the GOP-led committee.
It asked for all documents to be turned in by Oct 24.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), whose constituency covers Staten Island and southern Brooklyn, said the “migrant crisis was not an unmitigated emergency, it was a manmade disaster.”
“This shady backroom deal between the Biden and Adams administration is a misuse of federal land and taxpayer dollars,” she said.
Some city lawmakers agreed.
“This is alienation of parkland 101, ironically going to aliens,” said Councilmember Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island).
“Mayor Adams’ attempts to outdo a Republican border governor for political points have left our city in financial ruin, filled with unvetted migrants, and stripped our kids of sporting fields at Randall’s Island while taking essential park space like Floyd Bennett Field,” added Councilmember Robert Holden (D-Queens).
“We need accountability now more than ever.”
The decision to extend the lease has rankled Brooklyn residents who have observed migrants panhandling in nearby neighborhoods and a surge in crimes such as assaults, shoplifting and prostitution since it opened.
Hundreds of fired-up locals rallied against the federal site in June and in January migrants were briefly evacuated when dangerous winds closed in on the city, raising concerns of toppled tents or fatal flooding.
City Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) who attended the June rally said the letter showed that Congress “never gave up on us.”
“The state violated multiple laws and regulations in ramming through the camp at Floyd Bennett Field and the location has since become a blackhole of taxpayer dollars with billions poured in and little to show for it,” she told The Post.
A spokesperson for the governor told The Post “we are reviewing the letter.”
A spokesperson for the city told The Post that they’d received the letter and plan to respond.
“With over 210 emergency sites currently operating and hundreds of new arrivals continuing to arrive in New York City every week, we have been out of good options for a while now,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
They added that Floyd Bennett Field has been vital in sheltering “hundreds of migrant families with children every night.”
Meanwhile, Randall’s Island serves single adults and adult families.
“We are grateful for the support we have gotten from our federal partners on our lease extension at Floyd Bennett Field and beyond, including President Biden’s Executive Order earlier this summer, which has undoubtedly helped us in reducing the number of migrants coming into our care,” the spokesperson said.
