Without very much fanfare, or any public announcement whatsoever, over the weekend, the city-run “respite center” for new asylum applicants on ​​359 Stockton Street has closed down. 

“None of us from the community or mutual aid groups knew about this. We learned about the shelter potentially closing just two days ago,” said Mariel Acosta, a volunteer at Bushwick City Farm, a community garden that sits across the street. Since opening last year, the tallish brick building, just steps away from the Myrtle Broadway JMZ train station and once earmarked to turn into another Blink Gym, has instead been rented out by the city and filled with cots.

According to Acosta, who has been involved in circulating supplies to these asylum applicants, “there were about 600-700 men” in the building by the time it closed, “about 120-something per floor.” A city official, however, who confirmed the move to close the shelter on Stockton Street, said that “Stockton was at a little over 270 people last week according to our data.”