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Another NYC store busted for housing dozens illegally

By and FOX 5 NY STAFF
Updated  February 28, 2024 10:25pm EST
NYC Migrants
FOX 5 NY

Illegal migrant shelter discovered in Bronx

For the second day in a row, authorities found yet another building they say was illegally turned into housing for migrants, this time in the Bronx. FOX 5 NY's Kendall Green has the story.

THE BRONX - For the second day in a row, a second illegal migrant shelter has been discovered, this time in the Bronx.

Officials raided a building in the Bronx for illegally housing dozens of people under dangerous conditions – just one day after a Queens furniture store was busted for illegally housing more than 40 migrants in a dark, cramped basement.

The New York City Department of Buildings issued a vacate order Wednesday for a two-story commercial building on East Kingsbridge Road in Fordham.

"Our inspectors found that one of the commercial stores in the building had been illegally converted into sleeping quarters, with 34 beds on the first floor and 11 beds in the cellar tightly packed together," a DOB spokesperson told FOX 5 NY.

Inspectors also found extension cords, e-bikes, space heaters, and hotplates inside the Bronx building, the DOB said.

FOX 5 NY cameras captured several men carting suitcases out of the building as NYPD officers watched. One man told FOX 5 NY's Kendall Green he doesn't know where he will sleep Wednesday night.

"No house, no nothing," he told Green. "I come here, pay money, too much."

The man said he paid the building owner $300 a month and had lived at the location for two months.

The NYC Office of Emergency Management is assisting those who were living in the building.

Migrants found living in basement of NYC building

Dozens of migrants were found living in the basement of a furniture store in Queens.

The DOB ordered Sarr's Wholesale Furniture in Queens vacated Tuesday due to "severe overcrowding and hazardous fire trap conditions," spokesperson David Maggiotto said Tuesday.


Maggiotto said city inspectors found the building's first-floor commercial space and cellar had been converted into sleeping quarters, with 14 bunk beds and 13 beds tightly packed on both floors and able to fit about 41 people.

Ebou Sarr, the store's owner, said he was charging residents $300 a month for a place to sleep as well as providing breakfast, lunch and dinner. He said as many as 70 people were staying there because they couldn't afford a place to live after timing out of the city's emergency shelter system for migrants.