New York City Mayor Eric Adams has requested $2.3 billion to spend on 14,000 hotel rooms for housing migrants through 2025. The Adams administration estimates that the city will need to spend this amount for accommodating the 150 hotels currently under contract with the city to house illegals, as reported by the New York Post.
The total cost of these accommodations over three years is expected to reach $5.76 billion according to the city. In order to provide shelter, City Hall has contracts with the New York City Hotel Association at a rate of $352 per night per family.
The New York City Department of Homeless Services is looking to continue its Sanctuary Facility program by procuring a vendor that can assist in acquiring the use of large-scale commercial hotels and hotel management services to address the current emergency, officials said.
Vijay Dandapani, president and CEO of the New York City Hotel Association, revealed that his organization is paid approximately $100,000 per month to manage the contracts. He also mentioned that they have full-time employees working on fulfilling the migrant housing contracts in addition to their normal duties.
Mayor Adams has faced heavy criticism and consequently changed his more lenient policies by imposing 30-day limits for individual migrants and 60 days for families. The cost of the migrant crisis is already causing the city to limit services to citizens, with officials moving to cut funding for the city’s fire and police departments.
New York state is bearing a significant portion of the costs incurred by Joe Biden’s border crisis. It is estimated that the Empire State will spend upwards of $12 billion over three years on migrant housing, as reported by wire service AFP. In response to this surge in expenses, the state is looking to enact a $237 billion budget with large increases allocated for migrant housing.