Selene Sanchez wakes up early in the morning and kisses her 2-year-old son before dashing off to cleaning jobs across New York City.
She travels to different houses, scrubbing floors and tidying up before heading home, to the emergency shelter where she lives. Sanchez, 30, makes it back by lunchtime, when she and her husband switch places. He goes off to work, while she stays with Beymar, their son.
Later in the day she heads out again to search for more work. Sometimes she gets lucky — a new job comes up, and she can work an hour or two, bringing home a few more dollars.
The massive influx of migrants to New York City has sparked a political and economic firestorm. Mayor Adams last week announced sweeping cuts to police, schools and libraries to offset the growing cost of the crisis. Rallies in Queens and Staten Island have demanded shelter sites be moved.
New arrivals are caught up in the churn of a city that seems at times like it’s trying to push them out. The city government instated 60-day shelter stay limits and work permits are very difficult to obtain, with delays and long waiting periods.
But for Sanchez, and thousands of others, the challenges are part of a long journey they still believe will mean a better life for their families and are thankful for the opportunity. Sanchez came to New York after fleeing escalating gang violence that almost took her life in Ecuador. She is confident she made the right choice for her son.
“I came to sweat, to work hard, to gain stability and help me and my family,” Sanchez said.
More than 130,000 migrants have arrived in the city in a recent wave of migrants that has put the city under strain and overwhelmed the local homeless shelter system. Around half who have come have left the city and state or found places to stay outside of the shelter system. Still, there are over 65,000 new New Yorkers who’ve decided to build their lives here.
It is not easy.
Sanchez arrived in New York two months ago; she knows the trains better now and doesn’t get lost wandering Midtown. She even jaywalks sometimes — not possible in her home country. She doesn’t like the food at the shelter much, but she’s figured out which delis offer the cheapest food.
“I like New York,” she said. “But it is difficult. It is very difficult.”
As winter approaches and many get the boot from their shelters, their lives may only get harder.
“It’s going to be, for some of them, their very first winter,” said Brian Ourien, director of brand marketing and communications at The Bowery Mission. “We want to be as welcoming as possible for those people.”
A network of mutual aid groups, volunteers and nonprofits have stepped up to support migrants. The Bowery Mission hosted a massive Thanksgiving dinner for anyone in the city without a Thanksgiving table — and this year, that included migrants.
“There’s a lot of politics involved in all of this so we try to keep it human,” Ourien said, noting that The Bowery Mission was itself founded by immigrants. “It’s all about humanity. It’s all about serving those who come to our door.”
“The city is overwhelmed,” Ourien said. “Who is going to help, who is going to be providing them coats? It’s gonna be a pretty cold winter, who will be supporting them? We’re trying to do all that.”
Karelia Tovar arrived in New York just over a year ago, with her three kids, ages 16, 5 and 2. She hopes to build a long-term future in New York, and dreams that one day her family back home will join her and that she will eventually become an American citizen.
During that time, she has worked to create a more stable life for herself and her children. It’s hard to see if it’s paying off yet, but she does find more consistent work now. In the face of pending eviction — she’ll be kicked out of The Row in a month — and difficulties finding under-the-table work, she’s started to create more of a life for herself and her children.
“I work now three days, sometimes four days a week,” Tovar, 34, said. “And I have enough to eat and for my children’s things. I’m just waiting for my work permit, and I don’t have it yet. I put the TPS application in, I do not know what happens with that, because they haven’t responded to it yet.”
She likes to work and has juggled jobs in a kitchen, as a server and as a janitor.
“Thank God, they give us plenty of food,” Tovar, from Venezuela, said of the emergency shelter she lives in. “Although we are very cold. But the staff are very friendly, very nice. I can’t complain. And I even understand the [eviction] letter, because I understand that other people are coming and need the opportunities.”
