NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – New York City is "past our breaking point" and faces a return to fiscal disaster in the years ahead as it spends nearly $10 million a night to care for tens of thousands of migrants—a cost that could snowball to a price tag of over $12 billion by 2025, Mayor Eric Adams said in an address to the city Wednesday.
“We are facing an unprecedented state of emergency,” the mayor said from City Hall, nearly a year after he declared a state of emergency in the city.
He said the sight of groups of migrants sleeping on the sidewalk outside the Roosevelt Hotel last week may be a preview of things to come if it doesn’t get more help from the state and federal governments, with some 500 new arrivals each day.
About 100,000 people have come to the city seeking asylum since last spring, with about 57,300 of them still under the city’s care.
But City Hall estimates that latter number will grow to 100,000 by June 2025, at a cost of $6.1 for fiscal year 2025.
The city already spent $1.45 billion in the last fiscal year, from July 2022 through June 2023, to provide tens of thousands of migrants with shelter, food and other services.
Spending this fiscal year, ending next June, could top $5 billion—roughly the yearly budgets of the sanitation, parks and fire departments combined.
On average, the city spends $383 per night for each asylum seeker “household” in its care. It’s currently caring for 25,600 households made up of 57,300 individuals.
That means the city is spending $9.8 million per night and $300 million per month on the crisis, or at least $3.6 billion a year, the mayor said, adding it's a conservative estimate and could very well be higher.
All those expenses could reach more than $12 billion or more over fiscal years 2023, 2024 and 2025, according to city estimates.
“If we don’t get the support we need, New Yorkers could be left with a $12 billion bill,” Adams warned.
While the mayor said the city is grateful for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s help so far, he wants Albany to do more, including implementing a statewide “decompression strategy” so every county has to help carry the load; increasing the number of state-run and state-provided sites; and providing additional funding to the city.
He said the federal government can help by expediting work authorizations for asylum seekers; declaring a state of emergency to open up additional funding; providing more federal reimbursement for costs; and implementing a federal decompression strategy to ensure arrivals are more fairly distributed.
Extensive help from faith-based groups and nonprofits has helped the city meet a “historic crisis with historic compassion,” the mayor said, and the city “will not abandon the migrants.”
Still, “the city is running out of money, appropriate space and personnel to care for families,” he said.
Just this week, the city announced yet another 2,000-person emergency relief center would open on Randall’s Island despite pushback from local groups. The city is said to be considering 3,000 sites across the five boroughs, including high-profile locations like Central Park. Citywide, there are already nearly 200 emergency shelters of varying sizes.
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