BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — A new Siena College Poll found that a majority of New Yorkers are opposed to using SUNY as temporary housing for asylum seekers.
According to the poll released Wednesday, 54% oppose the idea while 33% are in support.
“Voters oppose using SUNY dorms to temporarily house new migrants to New York by a 21-point margin. It’s opposed by more than three-quarters of Republicans and a majority of independents, while Democrats are evenly divided. Pluralities of young and Latino voters support using SUNY dorms to temporarily house migrants, but majorities of older, white, and Black voters oppose it,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg.
The use of college dorms for migrants is a big issue for the Buffalo Niagara region.
In May, while appearing in Buffalo, Governor Kathy Hochul first announced that as the state tries to find housing for the more than 71,000 migrants and asylum seekers coming in from the southern border, one of the sites it is considering for temporary housing is on SUNY Campuses without a cost to local communities, but no final decision was made.
“This is simply allowing them to be welcome, whether it's in a hotel, if it is a campus, and the money follows them. The money will cover the costs of all the services they will need. I think a lot of people don't know that yet, they assume that will be borne by the local community. That's not the case here — it's a different dynamic,” stated Hochul.
Days later, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarzalso stated that asylum seekers could also be housed at SUNY campuses, specifically SUNY Buffalo State University,
Poloncarz said there's no final decision, but he has been in conversations with the New York State’s Department of Homeland Security who are considering housing them at a SUNY campus.
“They are considering housing asylum seekers, also known as parolees, at Buffalo State University, and possibly at the University at Buffalo.”
“They would be placed in dorms the school will not be used for students. if they were to be moved in the short term to UB they would actually then have to be moved out because there will be no room during the school year at the University at Buffalo, but there would be at Buffalo State,” explained Poloncarz.
But State Senator George Borrello opposed the idea of housing migrants on SUNY campuses calling it "a reckless idea".
“By a narrower 46-40% margin, a plurality of voters opposes relocating migrants to counties outside New York City in housing paid for by the City,” Greenberg said. “A majority of Democrats and New York City voters support it, however, it’s opposed by Republicans, independents, downstate suburbanites, and upstaters.”
Meanwhile, migrants have been coming into the Buffalo region and housed at a hotel in Cheektowaga over the past couple of weeks, but the intake has been handled by the area’s local resettlement agencies.
Thursday the Erie County Legislature’s Government Affairs Committee will be hearing from those agencies, Jericho Road, Jewish Family Services, and Journey’s End, along with members of the Poloncarz administration to answer questions about asylum seekers who have been arriving into the community.
