Daily per-migrant cost increases in New York
City says overall total trending downward
NEW YORK — The city’s currently spending more money on housing and services per migrant than it did last summer, despite projections from Mayor Eric Adams showing the overall price-tag for the crisis is dropping thanks to reductions in the number of asylum seekers in the city’s care.
Molly Wasow Park, Adams’ commissioner of the Department of Social Services, revealed in a City Council hearing Monday that the city’s current average per-night cost for caring for a single migrant household — known as the “per diem rate” — is $388. That price-tag is inclusive of all expense categories related to migrant care, including shelter and food.
The figure disclosed by Wasow Park is $5 higher than the $383 migrant per diem rate Adams cited last August, although the number has fluctuated.
The slight per diem uptick comes even though Adams announced a directive in November for his administration to reduce overall projected migrant spending by 20 percent in the current 2024 fiscal year, which runs through June 30.
Last month, City Hall said the administration had been “successful” in formulating a plan to achieve the 20 percent cut, putting its new projected total price-tag for the crisis at $10.4 billion through the end of the 2025 fiscal year, down from the previously forecasted $12.6 billion.
Overall, the city aims to save
$1.7 billion over the course of the current fiscal year, which has led to Adams restoring budget cuts across city agencies.
The mayor said last month that his administration was able to lower the projected spending because of a push to reduce the migrant shelter census.
The administration’s main mechanism for doing so has been to limit consecutive shelter stays for migrant adults to 30 days and migrant families with children to 60 days.
The policies appear to have had an impact, as there are currently about 65,000 migrants in the city’s care, down from about 68,000 in August.
Asked at Monday’s Council hearing whether she anticipates the migrant per diem rate will start going down, Wasow Park suggested there’s still work to do on that front.
The $388 per diem rate comprises costs associated with housing migrants in the city’s network of Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers, known as HERRCS, as well as in its traditional Department of Homeless Services shelters.