Price of being a sanctuary city: NYC is preparing to spend an extra $1B on hotels ALONE to shelter migrants for three more years

New York City plans to spend as much as $1 billion more on hotel rooms for immigrants over the next three years.

The city, which currently houses about 60,000 asylum seekers, will extend its contract with local hotels that have served as emergency shelters during a crisis that has seen more than 116,000 migrants arrive in just a year.

The city’s contract with the more than 100 hotels converted into shelters, which was set to expire this year, now expires in August 2026 at a total cost of $1.365 billion — nearly five times the original $237 million price tag.

The new charges do not include other facilities that have been converted into shelters, such as the tent shelters set up at the McCarren Recreation Center in Queens or the Island Shores Assisted Living on Staten Island.

As Mayor Eric Adams faces massive backlash to the crisis, city officials, including fellow Democrats, have spoken out about extending the contract with hotels

New York City’s migrant crisis is expected to cost the city $4.7 billion this year. Above is a list of some of the landmarks that have been converted into emergency shelters as officials struggle to house nearly 60,000 migrants in the city’s care

“The migrant crisis has evolved into a financial mess, with quietly extended contracts lining the pockets of a few at taxpayer expense,” Democratic Queens Assemblyman Robert Holden said in The New York Post.

“It’s time to put a stop to this fiscal recklessness. Let’s send those (migrant) buses to the White House and remember that the ‘right to shelter’ should not be misinterpreted as a global right.”

However, Department of Human Services/Homeless Services Commissioner Molly Wassow Park said there are cancellation clauses and the city does not have to pay the full amount if it no longer needs the hotels.

Adams has said the crisis will cost the city $12 billion over three years.

The city currently pays hotels an average of $185 per day per room, and spends about $385 per night per migrant family in need of housing and food. According to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, asylum seekers cost the city about $10 million every day.

Adams has warned that the city’s services will be affected by the incredible extra spending in the budget. He has previously stated that the city plans to cut services such as library hours, meals for seniors and free day care for three-year-olds.

As the city struggles with about 60,000 asylum seekers in its care, Adams has made several emergency contracts to provide migrants with clean bedding and towels.

While the city usually pays 99 cents per pound of laundry at homeless shelters, it currently pays DocGo $1.50 per pound, HappyNest $1.60 per pound and Garner $3 per pound.

As the city struggles with some 60,000 asylum seekers in its care, Adams has signed several emergency contracts

Migrants were seen sleeping outside the Roosevelt Hotel, which has reached capacity since being turned into a designated center for asylum seekers

The city pays for more than 100 shelters to house asylum seekers. One of the hotels, The Collective Paper Factory in Long Island City, is pictured

DocGo and Garner Environmental fees include other services such as security, food, and medical care, but HappyNest is for laundry services only.

The city council is now conducting an investigation into how a $432 million no-bid contract was handed to medical company DocGo, which has been accused of abusing migrants and having little experience caring for asylum seekers.

Adams has used his emergency powers to sign contracts with companies without challenge, but opponents fear the practice is ripe for abuse and waste of taxpayer dollars.

As asylum seekers from southern border states continue to arrive on buses, Governor Kathy Hochul announced Monday that another 150 troops will join the more than 2,000 troops already helping with the flow of migrants through New York state, which has already reached more than 116,000 this year saw people arriving. .

The National Guard will focus exclusively on case management of Venezuelans, who can apply for temporary protected status and then receive a work permit.

Hochul’s move comes as the migrant crisis reaches a boiling point in both NYC and Chicago, as thousands continue to cross the US-Mexico border before heading north to sanctuary cities, where they are entitled to shelter.

Many of the migrants said they chose NYC because of the city’s right to shelter, which Adams is now trying to abolish.

Many of the migrants said they chose NYC because of the city’s right to shelter, which Adams is now trying to abolish

Senior Adams administration official Anne Williams-Isom, the deputy mayor for Health and Human Services, told WNYC last night, “We’ll be back in court next week to really say, ‘I don’t think the right to shelter as it was originally written must be applied to this humanitarian crisis in its current form.’

The city first tried to change the law in May and is engaged in court-ordered negotiations with NY State and the Legal Aid Society, which represents homeless people.

Governor Hochul warned last week that asylum seekers arriving in New York City will not be housed in hotel rooms as in the past.

“We need to make it known that if you come to New York, you won’t have more hotel rooms, we don’t have capacity,” Hochul said on CNN. ‘So we must also make it clear that we have reached the limit: if you are going to leave your country, go somewhere else.’

It’s a stunning reversal from her statements in December 2021, when she pledged to house and protect asylum seekers — before thousands of migrants arrived each month from southern border states. More than 113,000 migrants have arrived in the city since last spring.

“As you know, there is an inscription on the Statue of Liberty. It says: give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, longing to be free,” Hochul said earlier. “You are welcome with open arms and we will do our best to keep you safe… Not only will we house you, but we will protect you.”