Riverhead Town Supervisor Yvette Aguiar declared a state of emergency Tuesday in connection to undocumented migrants and/or asylum seekers possibly coming to hotel or motels within the town.
The town supervisor told News 12 that New York City Mayor Eric Adams sent out an advisory communication to all housing facilities in Suffolk County to accept the individuals, and that the city would pay for their housing for up to a year and sign contracts with facilities that agreed.
Augiar says three Riverhead facilities agreed to house individuals and offered to sign the contract. As a preemptive measure, Augiar decided to create an executive order to say that the community could not handle the influx of migrants.
Supervisor Augiar said in part, “relative to the surrounding townships on the East End and throughout Suffolk County, Riverhead has done more than its share when it comes to housing the homeless, providing services and offering affordable housing and our resources and taxpayers simply cannot withstand further demand on our public services.”
She was unsure which facilities agreed to house migrants but says the facilities would be put on notice and to house them would be a violation of code.
“They’re not supposed to accept them and that’s something we would deal with in the courts,” Augiar told News 12.
