New York City Mayor Eric Adams is seeking $2.3 billion to spend on 14,000 hotel rooms to house migrants through 2025, according to reports.
The Adams administration projects the spending will be needed for the 150 hotels that are currently under contract with the city to house illegals, according to the New York Post.
Spending over the three years is likely to total up to $5.76 billion, the city says.
City hall has contracts with the New York City Hotel Association to provide the shelter at a cost of $352 per night per family, the city has reported.
“The New York City Department of Homeless Services is seeking to continue the City Sanctuary Facility program by procuring a vendor who can assist in acquiring the use of large-scale commercial hotels and hotel management services to help address the current emergency,” officials said.
The hotel association’s president and CEO, Vijay Dandapani, says his organization is paid about $100,000 per month to manage the contracts. In fact, he adds that they have full-time employees that work to fulfill the migrant housing contracts.
“We have five full time employees specifically for fulfilling the contractual obligations, besides work done by regular HANYC staff for the contract, in addition to their normal duties,” Dandapani told the paper.
On the tail of heavy criticism, Adams changed up his more lenient policies and began imposing 30-day limits for individual migrants and 60 days for families.
But the cost of the migrant crisis is already causing the city to limit services to citizens as officials have moved to cut funding for the city’s fire and police departments.
The Big Apple is only a small slice of the costs being sustained by New York state. Joe Biden’s border crisis is set to cost the Empire State upwards to $12 billion over three years, according to wire service AFP.
Meanwhile, the state is looking to enact a $237 billion budget that includes huge increases in migrant housing.
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