By Georgett Roberts and Emily Crane
Migrants staying at the Big Apple’s controversial tent shelter at Floyd Bennett Field have started going door to door in nearby neighborhoods begging residents for cash, food and clothes, furious locals told The Post Friday.
David Fitzgerald, 62, said he has noticed an influx of asylum seeker families showing up on his doorstep in Brooklyn’s Marine Park neighborhood in recent weeks asking for spare change — sparking safety fears among some of his neighbors.
“There’s definitely an invasion of immigrants from Floyd Bennett Field in our neighborhood and I see them sitting outside stores … outside the mall and going around to all the houses in the neighborhood, knocking on the door looking for money,” the retiree said.
“I certainly sympathize with their situation, but to have people knocking at your door looking for food that don’t speak English, it’s annoying. I don’t like it. We have never had this before, ever,” he continued.
“There is definitely a lot of nervousness in the neighborhood, that is for sure.”
Ring camera footage from Fitzgerald’s home captured one of the migrant families, with their kids in tow, recently knocking on his front door — some four miles from the city-run shelter site.
Paul Sanzone, who has lived in the neighborhood for 30 years, said migrants now knock on his door on a “regular basis.”
“I am all for charity, 100%. I’ll give you the shirt off my back, the money in my pocket, but not this way. It has got to stop,” Sanzone, 56, said.
He said he and his wife had been “on edge” ever since two people who recently came looking for food and money were wearing what appeared to be ankle monitors.
“It’s alarming,” he said.
And another local, only identified as Bronislav, told The Post a migrant couple with two children had only just knocked on his door in search of clothing earlier on Friday.
“They asked for clothes. I said I didn’t have and that was the truth,” the 58-year-old city worker said, adding that he realized immediately they had likely come from the nearby shelter.
Meanwhile, other residents have been taking to a Facebook group, titled “STOP FLOYD BENNETT ILLEGAL MIGRANTS,” to air their fury over the panhandling migrants of late, The City reported.
Recent posts in the group called on locals to report the begging migrants to 311 and urged neighbors not to “give in to the panhandlers.”
While Fitzgerald said he would normally have no hesitation calling the cops on a random trespasser, he noted: “How do you call the police for someone knocking at your door for food? You can’t really.”
He suggested the migrants were resorting to begging because Mayor Eric Adams and the city weren’t adequately caring for the roughly 1,700 asylum seekers being housed at the Floyd Bennett site. Migrants are fed at shelters but have reported that often the food is poorly made an unpalatable.
“These people are coming to residents of this neighborhood looking for the assistance that they are not getting,” said Fitzgerald, who is an immigrant from Ireland himself.
“Personally, I don’t think they should be at Floyd Bennett Field anyway. It’s not a good living environment for people, certainly for families. It’s just not good enough and if there is no room for them to be here, then they should not be here.
“They’re gonna end up in the streets, that’s what’s gonna happen, and these are families.”
City Hall didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The Floyd Bennett Field site, which is made up of four congregate sleeping dorms, has been marred by controversy since it started housing migrants last month.
Dozens of migrants refused to stay there after they were bused there by the city — with some arguing the isolated site was too far from their jobs and schools.
1145
What do you think? Post a comment.
Earlier this week, several asylum seekers said they spent a sleepless night at the site after a monster storm struck and caused metal bolts and hinges to drop from the ceiling.
“Pieces were falling from the roof,” Leugim del Carmen Martinez Ordaz, of Peru, told The Post at the time.
“The wind was so strong, it looked like the tents were going to give way and be blown apart,” Venezuelan migrant Reibi Rodriguez added.
