Mayor Eric Adams is putting his faith in the city’s religious leaders for help clothing all the migrants flocking to the Big Apple.
The mayor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships issued an appeal to houses of worship this week for donations of pants, long-sleeved shirts, socks and underwear in all sizes for men, women and children.
In a Tuesday email, the office’s executive director, Pastor Gilford Monrose, said the clothing should be new and still in its original packaging.
Monrose also asked for toiletries and hygiene items, including diapers, baby wipes, deodorants and menstrual products.
“This is a great opportunity for your house of worship to make a difference to asylum seekers in need,” he said.
Participants in the “Adopt-A-Shelter” program will need space to store the items and volunteers to distribute them to migrants living at the nearest homeless shelter.
But congregations without storage space or enough volunteers can also drop off donations off at select churches and community centers in each of the five boroughs.
Adams’ plea for charitable assistance followed his recent revelation that the city’s shelter system was nearing its “breaking point” under the stain of what he’s called the “unprecedented” influx of migrants since May.
Critics have faulted Adams for letting President Biden off the hook for the crisis and not calling on his to stop the record surge of migrants across the southern border.
Instead, Adams, a Democrat, has repeatedly faulted Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s relocation of migrants to the city — even though Abbott has since been outstripped by Democratic Mayor Oscar Leeser of El Paso, Texas.
A Thursday estimate from City Hall put the number of migrant arrivals at 17,400, most of whom are living in 42 emergency shelters.
Last month, Adams warned that the total could reach 75,000 and he’s asked President Biden for at least $500 million in emergency aid to house and provide basic services to the migrants for just one year.
