CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Cheektowaga Town Board approved a resolution that authorizes the town attorney to take action if the two local hotels used to house asylum seekers in Cheektowaga aren't vacated by December 31.
The resolution was sponsored by all six current members of the Cheektowaga Town Board and was approved on Tuesday.
"The reason we had every single board member on this is one of those situations if for whatever reason it may be, we all see the need to make sure the court order that we reached last year is honored, and we get to the first of the year and hotels go back to the use they were intended for," said Cheektowaga Town Supervisor Brian Nowak.
Asylum seekers have been housed at two Cheektowaga hotels since June of 2023. In October, 7 News reported that Erie County had mandated any asylum seeker living in a local hotel to vacate those properties by the end of 2024.
Also on Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that 25 shelters and hotels currently housing asylum seekers across New York State would close over the next two months. Western New York hotels on the list were the Red Roof Inn Plus in Amherst, also the Best Western Inn, and the Quality Inn in Cheektowaga.
For Supervisor Nowak, the recent resolution aims at getting Cheektowaga hotels back to their intended use.
"Moving on from having them in hotels is one thing, but saying we want to send you back to Mexico or Venezuela or whatever, that's a whole different story," said Supervisor Nowak. "These folks have a right to an asylum hearing and some of these folks will be granted asylum and there are already productive members of the community that are living in these buildings. Moving on from our hotels being used as encampments or shelters, yes, but not to say we don't want migrants or immigrants as part of our society."
