The Senegalese business owner who was caught running two makeshift migrant shelters this week was previously arrested in January for operating a third pop-up hostel in an abandoned library.
Authorities busted Ebou Sarr, 47, over a shelter in Queens on Monday where he had been charging 87 migrants a monthly fee of $300 for shelter and food, earning himself $26,100 a month, or $313,000 a year.
A second operation he ran in the Bronx was discovered on Wednesday and it emerged he was arrested on January 14 for running a hostel in an abandoned library.
Police officers found him inside the boarded up Old Fordham Library and he told them they were walking into ‘our migrant shelter’, according to court documents seen by The New York Post.
Sarr has come out to defend his makeshift shelters and said he was providing the migrants with breakfast, lunch and dinner but this was denied by some staying there.
Senegalese business owner Ebou Sarr, 47, who was caught running two makeshift migrant shelters this week, was previously arrested in January for operating a third pop-up hostel in an abandoned library
Authorities busted Sarr over a shelter in Queens on Monday where he had been charging 87 migrants a monthly fee of $300 for shelter and food, earning himself $26,100 a month, or $313,000 a year
A second operation he ran in the Bronx was discovered on Wednesday and it emerged he was arrested on January 14 for running a hostel in an abandoned library
Sarr told police he ran the makeshift shelter to ‘help these people because they have nowhere to go.’
‘Shelters won’t accept us. I have proof of residency from the mayor … I have a business up the street, but this is where I live,’ he said according to the criminal complaint from the January incident.
Authorities charged him with two counts of trespassing which he has to answer in court on April 16.
He said he did not break into the abandoned library when authorities found him there but he said he did not have permission.
‘I’m gonna take this to the news,’ the criminal complaint stated.
‘It was a place that I think is empty, and it’s safe for us to put our people. We were trying to get the city to give us that library. It’s been there for so many years,’ Sarr told the New York Post.
‘Places like that, they can put the people in. Fix the place and put the people in there.’
But this did not serve as a deterrent as Sarr was caught running to more makeshift shelters.
Officials told PIX11 that at least 45 confined beds were found inside a basement and first floor of a closed furniture store on East Kingsbridge Road.
The migrants were removed from their housing and taken to city-run shelters but some of the occupants said that they would rather live on the street.
Sarr, a migrant himself who came to the US years ago, said that he felt compelled to set up the shelters.
He claimed the $300 rent was a donation and he did not take more money than anyone could afford.
Officials made the first shocking discovery on Monday during a building inspection at the business in Queens after a 311 call prompted an investigation.
The call had been made to complain about a large number of e-bikes in the rear yard of the property.
The FDNY said that around 40 cramped beds were found on the ground floor of the property and in the cellar at that location.
About 40 beds were found on the ground floor and in the cellar in the Queens shelter, according to the FDNY
The 311 call had been made to complain about a large number of e-bikes in the rear yard of the property
Migrants were transferred to another shelter in the Bronx and a vacate order has been issued for the building over safety concerns following the discovery
Those migrants were transferred to another shelter in the Bronx and a vacate order has been issued for the building over safety concerns following the discovery.
Fire officials added that they eventually found that people were taking turns to sleep due to the limited number of beds.
Most of the migrants are from Senegal- a country in West Africa.
There were four brand-new mattresses still in the shelter rooms which were filled with garbage and smelt like urine.
Metal bars were installed on the basement and first-floor windows and padlocks were placed on the doors near Marion Avenue.
On Tuesday, Sarr told PIX11 that he had been providing them with breakfast, lunch and dinner.
There were two bathrooms available, as with Sarr explained that he had been giving out memberships to Planet Fitness so those living in the basement could shower.
But Fallou Seye, 29, who was staying at one of Sarr’s shelters said ‘it was hard’ to scrape the money together.
‘We had no bathroom; we had to go to Planet Fitness to take a shower,’ he said.
‘He gave us food, only one meal per day, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon.’
Migrant Bamba Ndiaye, 42, said Sarr was good to him and he enjoyed staying at the shelter as he went to pick up his possessions at the Queens furniture store.
‘It was nice inside. He [was] good to me,’ he said. ‘I’m going to go to my job and hope for the best.’
Bamba Ndeyhe, 30, said he hated staying at the shelter and he only got one meal and says he was sent to shower in the Planet Fitness across the road.
On Wednesday, Sarr said: ‘This was their choice, they choose to be here than being over there in the shelter.’
‘If you ask each and everyone of them they will tell you this, they did not want to go.’
Sarr continued: ‘They [the city] promise that they have places for them. They lie, there was no beds. They end up in the streets again roaming around.’
Fire officials said they eventually found that people were taking turns to sleep due to the limited number of beds
Recently arrived migrants wait at a bus stop outside Floyd Bennet Field shelter on February 21, 2024 in the Brooklyn borough of New York
Migrants pick up clothes as mutual aid groups distribute food and clothes under cold weather near the Migrant Assistance Center at St. Brigid Elementary School last month in New York
‘We came up with this idea that we can do this on our own, so we came up with a strategy to put this money together to help ourselves.’
‘They have lied to them in the past, they are lying again. We have to change the way we are doing things. We are all human, we are all equal.’
‘Safety was our number one priority, I hope they change their laws. People can not be sleeping around on the streets like animals, like dogs.
‘Even animals don’t sleep on the streets, how about human beings. They don’t care because it is not their people.’
Sarr insists he will fight the charges and sue the New York City Police Department. ‘We’ve lost a lot of money in that place because they took us out and didn’t give us a chance to get our properties,’ he said.
‘The guys lost their stuff. It was safe and that’s why we chose that place. It’s a big building.’
A neighbor of one of the properties next to the shelter said: ‘He was taking advantage of those people. At least, if you want to take them and charge the money, let them live like human beings. I think he played with their mind.’
While Tricia, who works at a nearby salon, added: ‘He [Sarr] is no good. I think he is a scammer.’
But Sarr claimed: ‘People can say whatever they want to say. They have their opinion. But the people that was with me wouldn’t say that.’
On Tuesday, deputy mayor for housing Maria Torres-Springer said: ‘What we discovered last night in some ways is also symptomatic of a larger crisis that this city is facing that we’ve talked about repeatedly in terms of the housing shortage in this city.
‘It is not a new thing that too many people make desperate choices about where to live and what to pay for and at the root of that is the fact that we haven’t built enough housing.’
Mayor Eric Adams has been accused of wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on migrants by doling out no-bid contracts.
City Comptroller Brad Lander made the claim in an audit of migrant-related contracts released on Tuesday, identifying 340 asylum-seeker contracts representing an estimated contract value of $5.7 billion.