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New York City’s comptroller has demanded that Eric Adams reveal the true cost of his “tent city,” which was evacuated this week after just three weeks of operation.
Adams has insisted the project should cost no more than $650,000, but City Comptroller Brad Lander predicts the project would have cost millions.
Lander — whose job it is to make sure the city uses taxpayer money responsibly and effectively — sent a letter to Adams last week demanding he submit the actual costs of the tent city by Wednesday.
The town hall has not responded with a specific number. Instead, Adams joked Monday that he hoped he and Lander could “work together.”
Lander’s letter comes as the city began to decompose into the migrant housing facility built on Randall’s Island and opened just three weeks ago.
The facility – dubbed ‘Adams’ Tent City’ – was able to house up to 500 migrants. Everyone who lived there has been given the option of moving into the $450-a-night Watson Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander predicts that Mayor Eric Adams’ housing projects have cost millions
The New York City comptroller has demanded Eric Adams reveal the true cost of his migrant ‘tent city’, which was cleared this week after just three weeks of operation
The facility – dubbed ‘Adams’ Tent City’ – was able to house up to 500 migrants
Before the migrant facility on Randall’s Island was built, the city halted work on an original facility that had begun on Orchard Beach in the Bronx. Lander said he also wanted to know the cost of that project.
“We want to know the cost of settling on Orchard Beach, which they then demolished and put on Randall’s Island,” Lander said. NBC4.
In his letter, Lander demanded that Adams “provide my office with a detailed accounting of the costs” of his migrant housing efforts. He claimed it could be significantly higher than City Hall has said.
“I think it must have been a few million dollars to put up two tents. A lot of people thought it was a mistake and that we didn’t need it,” Lander said.
The Randall’s Island facility even had some plush couches in front of big screen TVs for relaxing
At a press conference on Monday, Adam seemed annoyed that Lander had raised the funding issue in such a public manner.
“He sent a letter on Friday and then he talks about it like it was a week ago,” Adams said. ‘Come on!’
He also lamented the direction his relationship with Lander was going and encouraged them to work together.
“I hope this doesn’t turn out like the previous controller-mayor relationship. Let’s work together. Come on, Brad!’
The residents of downtown Randall’s Island are moved to the Watson Hotel in Midtown Manhattan (above)
A sign in the door of the Watson Hotel in Midtown, Manhattan, informs of closure due to the arrival of migrants
Meanwhile, a tax watchdog group released a report finding that NYC will spend nearly $600 million a year to house, educate, and provide healthcare and legal aid for the thousands of migrants who have come to the city in recent months.
The figures are compiled by the Independent Budget Office [IBO] requested by Staten Island politicians, and were based on the 17,500 migrants who arrived in New York in November.
Based on those numbers, the IBO concluded that the city will spend “at least” $596 million a year on migrants, and that an expected additional 10,000 individuals would add $246 million in spending.
City officials will visit the Randall’s Island migrant housing facility in October before it opens
A few migrants arrive at the Randall’s Island facility in October
The IBO noted in its analysis that it could not determine exactly what the migrants would cost the city because their numbers continued to ‘evolve’.
“The total cost of providing the identified city services cannot be estimated with certainty as the number of people arriving continues to evolve.”
The IBO analysis was requested by City Councilman Joe Borelli and his colleagues. He slammed the numbers, saying those hundreds of millions could be used to help New Yorkers foot the bill.
“It is incredible to think that if we didn’t spend $600 million to accommodate Biden’s open border, we would have the $600 million we need to prevent our city’s retirees from losing their current health plan. It all comes out of the same pocket,” he said.
A City Hall spokesperson said they would review new figures to determine their own updated estimate of migrant costs.
“As the number of asylum seekers arriving in New York City has fluctuated widely in recent weeks, we are reviewing previous analysis to determine if there is a more accurate estimate of total costs over the current fiscal year,” spokesperson Fabian Levy said in a statement.
Migrants arrive from Texas by bus to Manhattan’s Port Authority Bus Station in August
Industrial kitchens fitted in the Randall’ Island migrant housing facility
Adams had previously estimated that caring for migrants would cost the city about $1 billion, but this weekend he said the White House’s new border policy would drastically reduce that number.
“We would have had a $1 billion price tag if we hadn’t gotten the support we needed from the White House,” Adams said. “We’ve been able to get that support, so that will lower that price tag significantly.”
Adams was referring to a plan that President Biden recently announced with the mayor of El Paso to stop migrants at the border and halt the crossing of migrant buses into New York.
“Instead of having 10 buses a day, it will trickle down significantly,” Adams said.
Adams Tent City’ opened on October 19 to house single men seeking asylum in the US for temporary periods after their initial arrival in New York City. The center helped them determine what resources they needed and if they wanted to go elsewhere.
In recent months, the number of migrants, mostly from Venezuela, arriving in New York City had surged after officials in states such as Texas and Arizona sent them on buses.
It led to Adams declaring a state of emergency due to increased strain on the city’s infrastructure, with the homeless shelter system bursting. There are more than 63,300 people in the shelter system.
But the Randall’s Island facility, which consisted of heated tents with cots for up to 500 people and could have held double the number of people, was not used anywhere near that capacity.