Blue city officials shut down furniture store illegally converted into migrant shelter

New York City officials announced Tuesday that they were shutting down Sarr’s Wholesale Furniture store after discovering the property illegally housed dozens of migrants.

David Maggiotto, the spokesperson for the city’s Department of Buildings, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the store had been vacated because of “severe overcrowding” since the owner had allowed over 40 people to be housed there. The store violated two city codes by allowing illegal work without a permit and having occupants in the store’s “two-story mixed-use building,” he said.

“As a result, DOB issued a Full Vacate Order for the first floor and cellar of the building, due to severe overcrowding and hazardous fire trap conditions found in the building,” Maggiotto said.

The building’s first floor and cellar had reportedly been made into a sleeping area with 14 bunk beds and 13 regular beds, and city inspectors who visited the building estimated it could hold around 41 people, according to The Associated Press.

The New York City Fire Department responded to a call Monday about an abnormal amount of e-bikes that some felt were a fire risk, Maggiotto told the DCNF. Plumbing had been done with a permit and the building’s basement did not have an egress window or ventilation in violation of another building code.

Ebou Sarr, the owner of the store, said that the city claimed that “they have no place for these people” but that it is “not true,” according to PIX 11, a local media outlet. He also said he is looking at other properties to try and find them a place to stay.

Sarr said that he had been charging $300 a month and made sure they had three meals a day, the outlet reported.

Most of the migrants are from Senegal, Sarr told PIX 11.

Maggiotto told the DCNF that all the former occupants are working with the city’s Emergency Management office for a new placement. The city is currently suffering from a migrant and homelessness crisis as over 150,000 illegal immigrants have come to the Big Apple since President Joe Biden took office in 2021, forcing the city to spend over $2 billion to try and keep up with the nearly 70,000 migrants that are living in emergency shelters.

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