Schenectady County officials respond to placement of NYC asylees

ROTTERDAM, N.Y. (NEWS10) – Schenectady County officials are reacting to the latest wave of asylum seekers in the Capital Region. NEWS10 explains the next steps the county plans to take.

Nearly 200 asylum seekers have been moved into the county within the past week. Schenectady county legislators plan to hold a special meeting on Monday, to discuss an emergency order that would prohibit the further acceptance and housing of asylum seekers.

Schenectady County Manager, Rory Fluman, says there has been little time to prepare for the busses filled with migrants that made the Super 8 Motel in Rotterdam their new home.

“We have come to the place, you know, with the experience of what’s happening in Rotterdam, that we are going to name a housing crisis. And what that housing crisis means is the communication of DocGo and the City of New York are readily transparent about this problem,” said Fluman.

Fluman says Schenectady is not a sanctuary city.

“That was a thing like two or three years ago. You know, cities were choosing to become sanctuary cities. New York city became a sanctuary City. The city of Schenectady chose not to become a sanctuary city, the county made the same decision two or three years ago,” said Fluman.

But that hasn’t stopped New York City from sending the buses to upstate communities.  “In the hotel right now are 183 people. About 100 kids. When I say children, 0 to 17,” said Fluman.

Fluman says that he has a close working relationship with DocGo, the company that NYC has hired to be responsible for the care of the asylum seekers.

“The DocGo process is, they are more likely to be communicative with me because I’m the manager of government. So, they know that they have to have that chain of communication with me. What I will say about the case management, food service, medical apply stuff, The DocGo people, at the moment are guaranteeing that they are paying for everything. So, we’re holding them to that word,” said Fluman.

It’s unclear how long the asylees will stay here. “The doctor people have a verbal contract with the owners of the Super 8 for a year so people will be coming in and out for a year. Their current contract is for 28 days,” said Fluman.

The town of Rotterdam is scheduled to host their own meeting Monday night to address the asylum seekers, as well.