New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on January 21, 2023 that the city would soon be opening a "Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center [HERRC] at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal to temporarily serve the continued influx of asylum seekers arriving in New York City."

The City said that the plan was to be able to serve approximately 1,000 asylum seekers, and to close it down before the start of the cruise season in the spring. It did in fact close in late March shortly before cruise ships began arriving.

This story was first posted, January 24, 2023, when the center had not yet opened. The HERRC generated a lot of media coverage before it opened and once it did.  The Red Hook community turned out to help and there were many forms of pop-up assistance. Their presence here led to no ill effects in the neighborhood that we know of, which we mention giving the media coverage about some communities being afraid of large numbers of men arriving in shelters planned for their area. We can also say that many HERRC residents used the deck of our ship for TankerTime and were so kind as to donate a large bag of cat food for our ship cat Chiclet. 

Below are some posts from PortSide NewYork's social media.