NYC migrant crisis could soon cost $12B: Mayor Adams
New York City’s surging migrant population is set to double by June 2024 – meaning the city will be on the hook for 100,000 homeless migrants – as costs are estimated to rise to a high of over $12 billion over the next three years.
“We are past our breaking point,” Adams declared in a dire address at City Hall on Wednesday, a day after the mayor pleaded with the feds and everyday New Yorkers to help mitigate the crisis.
Right now, the city spends a nightly average of $383 per 25,600 asylum seeker household – including families with kids, adult couples and singles – for housing, food and other services, according to officials.
That means the city spends $9.8 million each day and $300 million per month combined.
“With more than 57,300 individuals currently in our care on an average night, it amounts to $9.8 million a day. Almost $300 million a month and nearly $3.6 billion a year,” the mayor said.
“This is the floor, not the ceiling,” he warned, revealing the city’s current expenses could rise even further.
“Our new estimates have us spending nearly $5 billion on this crisis in the current fiscal year!” Adams warned.
“That’s up from the $1.4 billion we spent last fiscal year, and it nearly equals the budgets of Sanitation Department, our Parks Department and the FDNY combined,” added the mayor
“If things do not change, we expect to have more than 100,000 asylum seekers in our care by the end of June 2025 – driving projected spending to $6.1 billion in that fiscal year if we do not change course.”
If the projection came to pass, there would be more migrants being sheltered in New York City than living in New York’s state’s capital city of Albany.
“Since last year, nearly 100,000 asylum seekers have arrived in our city asking for shelter. Let me repeat, almost 100,000 men, women and children have asked for a place to stay. That’s almost the population of Albany, New York,” the mayor said.
Adams said the new projections would spike city costs to $12 billion by the end of June 2025 – a massive rise from the $4.3 billion previously anticipated through the end of 2024.
“To meet this need, we’ll have to add $7 billion to our financial plan, and this is on top of what we have already spent on this crisis,” he added.
Adams slammed both the state and federal government for failing to provide adequate funding and space to house migrants, as the city has been searching for space within the five boroughs – even considering landmark locations like a tent city in Central Park.
His administration has been challenging the city’s Right to Shelter Law, which requires the city to provide shelter to anyone with no place to call home in the boroughs.
“You come to New York City, and we are supposed to feed, clothe, house you as long as you want,” Adams said, referring to the mandate.
“That is just not sustainable. It’s not realistic. So because of that, you will find that people come from all over.”
In a joint statement Wednesday, The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless called on the federal government to step up as it fought to preserve the policy.
“We echo Mayor Adams’ call on both Washington and Albany to significantly increase resources in the form of funding, staffing, facilities, coordination, work authorization for new arrivals and more for the Adams Administration to comply with all court orders and local laws related to the Right to Shelter,” the statement read.
