$76M+ hotel charge

New migrant deal

Mayor Adams’ administration has inked an emergency $76.69 million contract with the Hotel Association of New York City to provide “last resort” shelter to migrant families.

Fifteen hotels in Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx will make blocks of rooms available to asylum-seeking families for up to 28 days under the “vouchering program” running through July.

“We’re not going to allow a child or family to sleep on the street,” Adams said during a press briefing Tuesday.

At the end of the 28 days, families may return to arrival centers — Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers — to receive another placement, according to the city Department of Housing and Preservation Development (HPD).

The Post reported in September 2023 that the city extended contracts with the Hotel Association for three years at a price tag of $1.365 billion — nearly five times the original $275 million deal — just to pay rental fees to more than 100 hotels that were converted into emergency shelters.

There are currently 493 households receiving shelter under the program administered by the HPD.

“The city has made managing the costs of the asylumseeker crisis a priority, so we worked with them to ensure the costs and commitments of housing newcomers in our hotels were as low as possible,” said Vijay Dandapani, president and CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City (HANYC).

170,000 & growing

According to HPD, the new contract formalizes ongoing work between HPD and HANYC since July 2023 and funds the program through July 2024. The city has provided more than 3,000 hotel rooms to migrant households through this program.

Migrant families are directed to the program as a “last resort” if there isn’t any other shelter space, HPD said.

The city has opened more than 210 emergency shelter sites to more than 170,700 migrants during the border crisis now entering its third year, according to officials, with the Adams administration scouring any available space to shelter them.