Desperately Seeking Suitcases!

Eric Adams and his administration are evicting refugee families from their temporary shelters, and they need your help!

Refugee families bussed to New York from border states are facing eviction yet again due to Mayor Adams's insistence that migrants can only be held in temporary shelters for 30 days (for single people) or 60 days (for families). With no place to go, people are forced to pack their scant belongings, report to city buildings, and be reassigned to a different temporary shelter. This is disruptive to their abilities to find work or send their children to school, damages any connections they have made with one another and the local community, and otherwise disrupts their lives when they are already facing displacement, trauma, and a great degree of uncertainty.

Volunteers have been trying to help by supplying those in need with warm clothes, hygiene supplies, and toys and books for the children. However, with evictions having already begun at floyd Bennet Field, the families that have managed to accumulate a few donations now have no way to transport their items with them when they are forced to leave. As a result, they risk having to leave things behind and start from scratch. This cycle will repeat every 30-60 days, depending on their family status, until they are able to secure more permanent housing.

What's more is that for every family that is reassigned to another shelter or who leaves the city entirely, a new family immediately takes their place at Floyd Bennet. This means that the need is almost impossible to fully meet, and newly-arrived families who arrive with nothing are scattered throughout those who have already been helped, either by us or by another group working at the shelter.

Our group of volunteers constantly searches for the best possible prices for suitcases. However, with more than 1,500 families currently housed at Floyd Bennett Field and new families arriving almost daily, we cannot afford to purchase enough suitcases to fill the need. That's where you come in!

Please help us supply suitcases to the people and families that Mayor Adams is looking to displace and evict. Many of them have only just gotten their hands on a few sweaters or pairs of socks after arriving from warmer climates in shorts and flip-flops. Don't make them leave those items behind when they are evicted!

At present, we are able to buy a luggage bundle consisting of three suitcases (one each in size small, medium, and large) for $89 before tax. This means that we can buy about three suitcases for every $100 raised moving forward. However, donations of less than $100 are not only welcome but also encouraged. Since we can also buy a small suitcase for $25, every donation, regardless of size, helps us purchase suitcases to distribute the next week.